Cormaic's Garden - Plants - The Rockery Heathers

Garden Layout - Plants - The Rockery Heathers
Three of the rockery heathers in early spring, displaying their winter/spring colours.
In the foreground are the white flowers of Erica x Darleyensis "Silberschmelze", a prostrate heather which has dark green spiny foliage with 75-100mm spikes of white flowers in February, March and into April. After trimming back the flower spikes once they've faded, the new growth is a creamy green colour. This heather grows to about 200mm high, and spreads over an area of 500x500mm. Just behind the Silbershmelze are the deep pink flowers of Erica carnea "RB Cooke". This has a very similar habit to Silberschmelze, but the foliage is slightly darker and I find that the two combine well together. If anything, RB Cooke is a little more vigourous than Silberschmelze.
At the top of the picture are the coral pink new shoots of Calluna vulgaris "Fred J Chapple". This is a more upright heather, reaching 350mm in height with a coverage of about 300x300mm. The new shoots gradually change from coral to copper and then to red before bearing pale lavender coloured flowers in late summer. Who said you can't grow Calluna's amongst blocks of limestone? :~)