The Wild Heather Garden

A heather garden is a colorful and delightful thing, but all too often spoiled by artificial-looking arrangements of heathers. One variety of flowering or colorfully-foliage heather will unaccountably end in a straight edge beside a contrasting form, and this looks unnatural. So, how can we make a heather garden look more natural?

The answer, of course, is to take inspiration from the wild. I'm fortunate enough to live in an area of rocky hills that have acid soil and are naturally populated with heathers, pines, birch trees and bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus). It is through roaming these hills and in studying the natural arrangements of these plants that I have been able to take inspiration for my own garden.

Topiary Tree

So, to the specifics of how to create a natural effect in a heather garden. Firstly, consider the heathers themselves. Contrary to some advice in gardening publications, heathers are best seen as clump-forming plants rather than as drifts. Having said that, the heather clumps may be characterized as forming drifts en mass. My advice is to use the plants in groups of at least five of the same variety (and preferably more), planted to form a rounded clump rather than in a line or a swirly shape. So, the heather garden will consist of an area containing round clumps of different varieties, some larger clumps, some smaller, some as small as individual plants. This most closely reflects the natural growth of heathers in the wild, where they are scattered and not forming a continuous blanket, in my experience.

The Wild Heather Garden

How much space should there be between these clumps of heather? Some natural rocky or gravely places have their heathers growing fairly widely apart, while in other places the heathers are close enough to form a continuous ground cover. You must decide on which effect you want though you can combine the two effects in different parts of your heather garden.

Birchs, pines and other natural looking conifers such as junipers can be dotted here and there in specific areas, leaving the middle of the heather garden at least as an open, unwooded area. Where I live, the Downy Birch (Betula pubescens) predominates, and this can be used in the garden if you can obtain plants from a suitable supplier. There is of course the closely-related silver birch (Betula pendula), although this forms a bigger tree that gives a wider, weeping effect when compared with the narrow and more congested downy birch. There are many other more exotic birches that can also be used, the obvious one being Betula jacquemontii, the Himalayan birch, with its seemingly white-painted trunk and lower branches. The Swedish birch (Betula pendula 'Dalecalica') with its finely cut leaves is also an interesting variation to grow.

Suitable junipers for a 'wild' effect when planted amongst heathers include Juniperus chinensis 'Blaaw' (syn Juniperus Xmedia 'Blaaw'), Juniperus communis 'Depressed Star' (and the similar but slower and golden Juniperus communis 'Depressa Aurea'), and Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star'. These should not grow too big or wide, but can in any case be selectively trimmed. There are many others that are also suitable.

The heathers themselves can be supplemented with dwarf Vacciniums such as the Bilberry, also known as 'Whortleberry'. The Cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), being evergreen, is also a useful miniature shrub to grow. It has small white flowers and red berries. There are many other small shrubs that can make a useful and significant impact in the heather garden, such as brooms (Cytisus) and Gaultheria, but it is usually important to maintain an open stretch of heather in at least the middle or the front of the heather garden for best effect.

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