Flowers, large magenta (H14); V1-IX; foliage grey-green; erect habit; height 20cm; spread 35cm.
Heathers
Dark Star
Evergreen, upright, bushy shrub; to 0.5m tall (depending on pruning regime).
Foliage dark brown-green, young growth tinged dark red.
Leaves linear, to 6mm, <0.5mm broad.
Flowers white, buds dull red; tubular, to 5mm long; in raceme-like clusters, florets in threes or in pairs; style becoming emergent, + straight; style-end tinged red; ovary + cylindrical, c. 2.5mm long, glabrous; seed not formed; calyx lobes 4, rarely two dorsal lobes fused; stamens 8, included; filaments with sigmoid bend below anther; anthers dark red, with amber awns; pollen not formed; nectar evident in base of corolla but no conspicuous nectary ring.
The foliage of Erica x vanleuvenii is much finer than in the parent heathers.
Unlike clones of other hybrid heaths, ‘Dark Star’ does not have the colourful (discoloured) young shoots (“spring tips”).
‘Kermit’
Dunkelgrün, sehr buschig mit dicht besetzten Trieben, gute Blüte im Alter von zwei Jahren, winterhart, robust.
Dark green, very bushy with densely populated shoots, good flowering at the age of two years. “The best dark green seedling I found, my favourite.”
Deliberately raised seedling from self-pollinated E. arborea ‘Albert’s Gold’, cross made by Johannes van Leuven in May 2011; selected October 2013.
Originally registered under the name Erica arborea ‘Grüner Favorit’ ® E.2016:09. Registered on 29th December 2016 by Johannes van Leuven (Geldern, Germany).
Erica fascicularis var fascicularis
Description
Pink, tubular, sticky flowers with pale green lobes: VI-IX; erect sparsely-branched shrub with a long slender stems; height up to 1.8m. Found in sandy, rocky slopes.
Named from Latin: fasciculatus = in clusters or bundles; referring to the arrangement of the flowers.
‘New Horizon’
Relatively large, scented white flowers; the red-tinged ovary is densely hirsute, as are the spurs of the anthers which yield pollen; IV-V; The young shoots are discoloured, appearing bright yellow-green.
On 20 March 2011, Kurt Kramer pollinated a putative tetraploid clone of Erica × veitchii with pollen from several different (both white- and lilac-flowered) putative tetraploid clones of Erica australis. About 50 seedlings were raised and after growing on for several years, the 15 best clones were retained for further trial. These were grown outside in Kramer’s nursery at Edewecht, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony), in northwestern Germany. In 2017, 13 of the clones were still growing, having survived temperatures as low as -13°C (January 2016). Only clone 8 was selected for further propagation, distribution and naming by Kurt Kramer.
Named ‘New Horizon’ because Kurt Kramer sees this clone and his breeding work as the foundation of new breeding efforts in Erica combining three different species
® E.2017:01 registered on 20 June 2017 by Kurt Kramer, Edewecht, Germany.
‘Polly’
Lavender flowers, VIII–IX; yellow-orange foliage, tinted red and bronze becoming redder in winter; dwarf, spreading; height 16–20cm; spread 31–45cm.
Seedling found by R. J. Brien (Pitcairngreen Heather Farm, Perth, Scotland) by 1985.
Named after R. (Bob) J. Brien’s youngest grand-daughter.
‘Glockenspiel’
Flowers rose-pink (H7) to heliotrope (H12) in terminal racemes, 20–30 per cluster; IV:VI and often also IX;XI; foliage dark green almost spirally arranged or in disarticulated whorls of 3 or 4; habit upright; height 30cm; spread 30cm.
Another (nursery code 04-59-6) of the seedlings raised by Kurt Kramer in 2004 from unnamed “pink” seedling of Erica manipuliflora deliberately pollinated by an unnamed “crimson” seedling of Erica spiculifolia.
This name is chosen as the German equivalent of carillon, a musical instrument comprising a collection of at least 23 bells.
® DME 2018–05: Registered 29 September 2018, by E C Nelson, England.
See The June 2019 RHS publication The Plantsman for more details.
‘Winifred Whitley’
Amethyst (H1) schizopetalous flowers; VII-VIII; dark green foliage. ‘W. G. Notley‘ is a greatly improved variety.
Wild-collected; found by Miss Winifred Whitley (Broadstone, Dorset, England) by 1933, and introduced by Maxwell & Beale (Broadstone) in 1934. It was stated then to be a hybrid between E. cinerea and E. [i.e. Calluna] vulgaris.
Named after Miss Whitley, the discoverer of this plant.
‘Rosabella’
Salmon-pink(H15) flowers in profusion; VII-VIII; foliage dense dark green. Best regarded as a dwarf variant of ‘C. G. Best‘. 15cm tall, 40cm spread.
Possible seedling; introduced by G. M. Post (Singerskamp, Laren, Netherlands) by 1939. It is now thought to be extinct.
Derivation not known.
Note: A clone widely grown under this name has magenta (H14) flowers in profusion, June-Sept, with dark green foliage; an outstanding plant with a compact, spreading habit (see Small & Small (1998)). This clone is now named ‘Rosy Chimes‘.
‘Joseph Rock’
Purple flowers; VII-IX; foliage dark green. Dense upright growth. 25cm tall, 60cm spread.
Listed by Barncroft Nurseries (Longsdon, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England) by 1991.
Name derivation not known, but most unlikey to be named after the American plant collector.