CHAPTER XXVIII. The Heaths

THE HEATHS

Few groups of small flowering shrubs are so charming in the garden as the hardy Heaths. Their usually neat growth, profusion of flowers, and length of time they are in beauty--sometimes three or four months--make them of great garden value. Not more than twelve species can be grown in the open air, but, with one or two exceptions, all are beautiful, as the following complete list suggests: Erica arborea, E. australis, E. carnea, E. ciliaris, E. cinerea, E. lusitanica (or codonodes), E. Mackaii, E. mediterranea, E. multiflora, E. scoparia, E. stricta, E. Tetralix, and E. vagans.

When the whole group is grown, one or more species may be had in flower every month in the year, except, perhaps, November. A hybrid between E. mediterranea and E. carnea (sold under the name of mediterranea hybrida) has been seen much of late, and is a very welcome little shrub, flowers appearing in some years even in November. Every year some expand before Christmas, and during January it is the brightest plant in the outdoor garden. E. carnea and the white variety follow it; then in a cluster come E. australis, E. arborea, E. lusitanica (codonodes), E. mediterranea and its several varieties, which fill up the months from March to May, and from June onwards we have E. cinerea, E. ciliaris, E. Mackaii, E. scoparia (the least worthy of the Heaths), E. stricta, and E. Tetralix. The two allied species, E. vagans and E. multiflora, carry on the Heath season until October.

The Heaths are happiest in a peaty soil. The great Heath nurseries are all on soil of that nature, but it is not essential. A loamy medium can, by adding leaf-mould and, if necessary, sand, be made to suit all the Heaths, and some, such as E. cinerea and E. mediterranea, are quite at home on a calcareous soil. Choose positions for them well exposed to the sun, with, if possible, a cool, moist bottom. The ways of planting vary, of course, according to the character of the species and varieties selected. The rather free-growing and taller Heaths, like lusitanica and arborea, may be planted in informal groups on sloping banks, or more sparsely with a dwarfer species like E. carnea as the groundwork. E. lusitanica and E. arborea, being somewhat tender, are only seen at their best in the south and west, but beautiful effects have been got by planting them in irregular and scattered groups on grassy slopes. The natural grouping of Gorse and Broom suggests a way of using the many beautiful Heaths.

E. mediterranea and its varieties, a beautiful group, and much hardier than the two species just mentioned, have flowers of shades of purple and white. Delightful effects are possible when they are planted in bold, informal groups, especially on sloping banks or ground, their flowers appearing over a period of ten or twelve weeks. Dwarf Heaths, like E. carnea, c. alba, cinerea, &c., may be used as edgings to beds of heathy plants. I am indebted to Mr. Bean for the following excellent notes about the Heaths, and the reason this group has a chapter to itself is to encourage a greater use of shrubs, strangely neglected in English gardens. The beauty of Heath in bloom appeals to poet and painter. Moorlands surfaced with colour, hill upon hill of softened shades fading away in the distance, are pleasant memories--pictures beautiful enough, we should have thought, to tempt the planter of the English garden to reproduce in a small way in the homelands. I hope this chapter will do something to make the beautiful wild Heaths and their varieties welcome in rough, peaty grounds and banks, and the many other places where they would be as happy as on their native moors and hillsides.

THE TALLER OR TREE-LIKE HEATHS

Erica arborea.--This is the most remarkable of all the hardy Heaths; it grows to quite a small tree. In the Isle of Wight, and doubtless elsewhere, it has been known to grow 30 feet high, with a trunk 39 inches in circumference. It is found wild in considerable abundance along the Mediterranean coast region between Genoa and Marseilles, the wood being used in the manufacture of the so-called Briar pipes, Briar being a corruption of the French word Bruyère. All the Heaths flower with great freedom but none more so than E. arborea and its near ally, E. lusitanica. The flowers are almost globular and nearly white; they are quite small individually, but produced so abundantly that the plants are smothered with them from March to May. My experience of this species is that it is hardier and thrives altogether better in the London district than E. lusitanica, a species for which it is often grown. It ripens seed every year almost, and can thus be readily increased in a natural way. The young wood is densely covered with short dark hairs and the leaves are closely packed in whorls of three.

E. lusitanica (syn. codonodes).--Many will not recognise the name lusitanica as applied to the well-known E. codonodes, but lusitanica is really an older designation. This Heath, as its name implies, comes from Portugal; it is also a native of Spain, and is often confounded with E. arborea. Briefly, they differ in the following respects: The flowers of E. lusitanica are longer and more bell-shaped than the globular ones of E. arborea; the foliage of E. lusitanica is a rather pale green, and has a rather more plumose look, the individual leaf being longer and more slender; the young wood, although downy, is not so hairy as in E. arborea. The remarkable abundance of flowers, a feature of E. arborea, is quite as apparent in this species, their colouring is a faintly pink-tinged white. From Messrs. R. Veitch and Sons, of Exeter, who are taking a special interest in these tree Heaths Kew has lately received a form intermediate between E. arborea and E. lusitanica--probably it is a hybrid. E. lusitanica does not apparently grow so large as E. arborea, but it is recorded to have reached 12 feet in height in Sussex. Farther west, in Dorsetshire, it grows luxuriantly, and is certainly one of the loveliest of evergreens that can be grown even in that favoured county. Seeds afford the best means of propagation.

E. australis.--One of the most beautiful and rare of all the Heaths, but unfortunately it is not so hardy as the majority. In the southern and western counties, however, it will thrive admirably, withstanding 20 degrees of frost without serious injury, provided the winter is not unusually protracted. It is curious that in spite of its beauty it is little known even in Cornwall, Devon, and similar localities, where it would doubtless thrive to perfection. It has been grown at Kew for the last six years, and although the winters during that period have not been very severe, it has stood out all the time, and it flowers regularly and profusely every spring. It can be increased by cuttings put in at the end of July or the beginning of August. E. australis is a native of Spain and Portugal; it flowers in April and May, and lasts eight weeks in beauty. The flowers are rich, bright, rosy red, brighter, indeed, than those of any other Heath; they are fragrant, pitcher-shaped, and about a quarter-inch long. The species has been confounded with E. mediterranea, which often does duty for it, but it is distinguished by having the flowers produced generally four or eight together in terminal clusters. (Those of E. mediterranea appear in the leaf axils.) Those who have gardens in well-sheltered or mild localities should grow this beautiful Heath. The difficulty at present is to get hold of the right thing; I am glad to know, however, that some trade firms are taking it up. It is said to grow 6 to 8 feet high, but I have not seen plants half as high.

E. mediterranea.--Of all the taller Heaths this is the one, I think, that deserves to be most freely planted in districts no warmer than the London one. The three preceding species, so beautiful when seen at their best, are more comfortable in the southern and western counties. Of sturdier constitution, E. mediterranea may be planted in large quantities with a view to producing broad effects. At Kew a group 70 feet across, planted three or four years ago, already makes a striking mass of purple each spring. The habit of remaining for a long time in full beauty, which is so marked a characteristic of the Heaths, is possessed to the full extent by this species. It is beautiful from March to May, and is all the more appreciated because the majority of the trees and shrubs that bloom at this season have yellow, pink, or white flowers. In the typical E. mediterranea the flowers are bright rosy red, but there is a charming white-flowered variety (alba), another with bluish foliage (glauca), and a dwarf one (nana). The flowers appear near the ends of the shoots in the axils of the leaves, and are pitcher-shaped. The name mediterranea is misleading, for according to Moggridge, the Mediterranean botanist, it is not a native of that region at all; it is rather of Biscayan origin, and is found in Western France and Spain.

On the boggy heaths of Galway and Mayo a form of this species is found; it is known as E. mediterranea var. hibernica, and grows 2 to 5 feet high. The typical E. mediterranea was represented in the Syon gardens seventy years ago by a specimen 10 feet high. Do any such noble examples remain in this country now? E. mediterranea hybrida has been already alluded to.

E. stricta.--Although not so strikingly beautiful as the Heaths previously mentioned, E. stricta is the hardiest of all the taller species. In inclement districts, where a tall Heath is desired, it may be recommended; it grows from 5 to 6 feet high, and is of erect and sturdy growth, with leaves borne in whorls four to six together; they are deep green, and a large mass of plants with their erect plumose branches produces a somewhat unusual effect. E. stricta, like so many Heaths, has a long flowering season; it begins to bloom in June, is at its best in July, but three months later flowers may still be gathered. The flowers are pale purple, and produced in terminal clusters. It has been in cultivation since 1765, and is a native of South-Western Europe; it is occasionally labelled E. ramulosa.

E. scoparia.--This species has proved to be the tallest Heath near London, for it has during the last few years grown as high as 9 feet. This gives it a certain distinction, but when regarded as a flower-bearing plant it is, I think, the least worthy of the tribe. The flowers are crowded in the leaf axils in great profusion, but are small and greenish white; the growth of the plant is somewhat straggling and uneven, but it has one merit--viz., it is quite hardy. I have seen its stems split by hard frost on more than one occasion during the last twelve years, but no permanent injury has resulted. It flowers in June, and is a native of the mountainous country to the north of the Mediterranean, especially about Mentone.

THE DWARFER HEATHS

The dwarf Heaths can be used quite differently from the more tree-like species that have just been described: as a carpeting beneath sparsely-planted shrubs, for furnishing sloping banks, or for growing on the small terraces of the Rock Garden they are equally useful. And of all these dwarf Heaths more can be said in favour of E. carnea than of any other species. It is not only absolutely hardy, but it flowers with astonishing freedom at a time of year when flowers are particularly cherished. Its flowering, of course, somewhat depends upon the weather, but frequently one may see its bright rosy bells almost as soon as January comes in. By the end of February the entire plant is a mass of beautiful colour, and for two or three months longer they retain their freshness no matter what weather may occur. So free-flowering is this Heath that its flowers literally cover it. E. carnea is one of those plants (and there are many of them) which, although perfectly well known and quite common, are still not used in gardens so freely as they ought to be. The majority of our early-flowering plants bear flowers that are either white or yellow, so that the rosy-red colouring of this Erica makes a welcome change. However freely it might be planted it would never become wearisome or out of place, for its tints, though bright and warm, are not harsh. Statements have been recently published to the effect that E. carnea is a British plant. This idea appears to have originated with Bentham, the botanist, who regarded E. carnea and E. mediterranea as the same species. Following out this idea, he included the plant which has already been alluded to as a form of E. mediterranea, which is found in Western Ireland, in his Flora of Britain as a form of E. carnea. Possibly he was right from the standpoint of the botanist, but the plant grown in gardens and nurseries as E. carnea is quite distinct from E. mediterranea. It is usually not more than 6 to 8 inches high, and is a native of the mountains of Central Europe.

E. cinerea (Scotch Heather).--Over almost the whole of these islands, from the Highlands of Scotland to the moors of Devon and Cornwall, this Heath occurs more or less abundantly. During the late summer and early autumn--it flowers from July onwards--it covers miles of Exmoor with bright-purple colouring, being usually associated with one of the dwarf autumn-flowering Gorses (Ulex Gallii). In gardens it has produced several forms, the two most brilliantly coloured being atrosanguinea and atropurpurea, but all the forms of this Heath are beautiful in colour, ranging from white to crimson. E. carnea loves the cool pure mountain air, and on hot and sandy soil in the Thames Valley is short-lived. At the same time it thrives admirably in gardens where a moist, cool bottom can be provided and where the air is pure. Altogether it makes an admirable succession to E. carnea.

E. ciliaris (Dorset Heath).--Although in smoky and foggy places, such as London, this Heath is not always satisfactory, in the purer air of the surrounding counties it is a delightful shrub. In some of the old oak-bearing country, in Sussex, for instance, it succeeds to perfection. It is a native of Britain, but is, I believe, confined to Cornwall and Dorset in England, and to Galway in Ireland. It has long, slender, prostrate stems, from which spring erect flower-bearing branches; the rich rose-purple flowers are borne in a long raceme, and they are the largest individually of those of all the native Heaths. The leaves are nearly always in threes, and, like all the younger parts of the plant, are covered with hairs and pubescence; it flowers from July onwards.

E. maweana.--This appears to be a fine variety of E. ciliaris, with larger leaves and flowers, even richer in colour and of sturdier growth. It was discovered in Portugal some thirty years or so ago by Mr. George Maw, but has not become popular notwithstanding its beauty. It was obtained for the Kew collection from Messrs. Cunningham and Fraser, of Edinburgh, three or four years ago, and certainly promises to be a better grower there than E. ciliaris. The flowers are rich crimson and in large racemes.

E. Watsoni.--This is a supposed natural hybrid between E. ciliaris and E. Tetralix, and was first discovered near Truro by Mr. H. C. Watson. It has rosy-crimson flowers produced in a flatter raceme than that of E. ciliaris. In this character and in other ways it is intermediate between the parents.

E. Tetralix (the Cross-leaved Heath or Bell Heather).--This beautiful Heath grows on most of the moors and mountain-sides throughout the British Isles, being perhaps the most widely spread of all the true Ericas in this country. It is called the "Cross-leaved Heath" because of the arrangement of the leaves, which are in whorls of four. It is not very distinct in general appearance from E. ciliaris, being downy and hairy on its young slender leaves, &c. It differs, however, in the arrangement of the flowers, which are in a terminal umbel. The leaves of E. ciliaris are usually in threes at each node, and, of course, its distribution in Britain is much more restricted than that of E. Tetralix. There are other minor points of difference that need not be referred to here. The "Cross-leaved Heath" grows 1 to 1½ feet high, and has bright rose-coloured flowers. There is a white-flowered variety (alba), and a very pubescent one named mollis.

E. Mackaii.--This is so closely allied to E. Tetralix that it is regarded merely as a variety by some authorities. It was first found in Galway in Ireland, between Roundstone Bay and Clifden. It has since proved to be a native also of Spain. It is a charming garden plant flowering from July to September. The leaves have the same right-angled arrangement as those of E. Tetralix, but the flower is shorter, broader, and of a paler rose.

E. vagans (Cornish Heath).--This Heath is one of the most useful of dwarf evergreens, growing vigorously, especially when planted in good soil. I think, however, it flowers better and has more of the typical Heath character when in somewhat poor, sandy soil. In England it is almost or quite confined to Cornwall, but occurs also in Ireland and South-West Europe. It is especially valuable in the garden because it flowers late, beginning in July and keeping on until October. Its flowers are crowded in racemes 4 to 6 inches long, and they are pinkish purple in colour. The plants may be kept neater and more compact by removing the flowering portion of the shoots before growth recommences in the following spring. Left to themselves, especially in soil that is at all rich, the plants are apt to get straggling and unkempt.

E. multiflora.--This belongs to the same type of Heath as E. vagans, the Cornish Heath, but differs in its more compact growth and shorter racemes of flowers. Although not so vigorous and showy, it may still be preferred for some situations. It is a neater plant, and its lower branches have not the same tendency to get sprawling and ungainly as E. vagans. In other respects it is much like that species, the leaves being of similar shape and arrangement, and the flowers of a paler purple; the raceme, however, is only 2 inches or so long. E. multiflora is not found in Britain, but is a native of the country to the north of the Mediterranean Sea from France to Greece.

Calluna vulgaris.--This has been named Erica (Heath), and may be appropriately included in this chapter on Heaths. It is the Common Heath of mountain and moor, is very closely allied to the true Heaths, and has given rise to many varieties. It likes a peaty or sandy soil, and is longer-lived and more profuse flowering under cultivation in poor rather than rich soil. It is very charming when grown in natural masses in the wilder parts of the garden, and its value is all the greater because it flowers when almost all other shrubs are out of bloom, viz., from July to October. Numerous varieties are offered by the trade, amongst which the following are the most noteworthy, either for their beauty or for their distinctness: Alba (white), Alporti (crimson), aurea (golden leaved), tenuis (red), pygmæa, and hypnoides (both dwarf).

Daboecia polifolia (St. Dabeoc's Heath) is a lovely little shrub, a close relative of the Heaths, and found wild in the west of Ireland. It grows a little over 1 foot high, and bears bell-shaped flowers rather abundantly on erect terminal spikes. They are purple or white, and sometimes have both colours in one flower, and the plants continue to produce them from July or August till the frosts come. It is quite as plentiful as the dwarf Heaths. Alba is a white variety. Menziesia polifolia is its former name, and is still found under that title in books.

The three most suitable Heaths for limestone are Erica carnea, vagans, and mediterranea.