Calluna - Cultivation

Cultivation

Despised until the 19th century for its associations with the most rugged rural poverty, heather's growth in popularity may be paralleled with the vogue for alpine plants. It is a very popular ornamental plant in gardens and for landscaping, in lime-free areas where it will thrive, but has defeated many a gardener on less acid soil. There are many named cultivars, selected for variation in flower colour and for different foliage colour and growing habits.

Different cultivars have flower colours ranging from white, through pink and a wide range of purples, and including reds. The flowering season with different cultivars extends from late July to November in the northern hemisphere. The flowers may turn brown but still remain on the plants over winter, and this can lead to interesting decorative effects.

Cultivars with ornamental foliage are usually selected for reddish and golden leaf colour. A few forms can be silvery grey. Many of the ornamental foliage forms change colour with the onset of winter weather, usually increasing in intensity of colour. Some forms are grown for distinctive young spring foliage. Cultivars include ‘Beoley Crimson’ (Crimson red), ‘Boskoop’ (light purple), ‘Cuprea’ (copper), 'Firefly' (deep mauve),‘Long White’ (white).

The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-

'Alexandra' (Garden Girls series)
'Alicia' (Garden Girls series)
'Allegro'
'Annette' (Garden Girls series)
'Anne Marie'
'Anthony Davis'
'Beoley Gold'
'Dark Beauty'
'Dark Star'
'Darkness'

'Elsie Purnell'
'Firefly'
'Joy Vanstone'
'Kerstin'
'Kinlochruel'
'Mair's Variety'
'Mullion'
'My Dream'
'Peter Sparkes'
'Radnor'

'Robert Chapman'
'Roland Haagen'
'Serlei Aurea'
'Silver Rose'
'Sir John Charrington'
'Sister Anne'
'Spring Cream'
'Sunset'
'Tib'
'Wickwar Flame'

Famous quotes containing the word cultivation:

“Those who are esteemed umpires of taste, are often persons who have acquired some knowledge of admired pictures or sculptures, and have an inclination for whatever is elegant; but if you inquire whether they are beautiful souls, and whether their own acts are like fair pictures, you learn that they are selfish and sensual. Their cultivation is local, as if you should rub a log of dry wood in one spot to produce fire, all the rest remaining cold.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

“The cultivation of literary pursuits forms the basis of all sciences, and in their perfection consist the reputation and prosperity of kingdoms.”
—Marquês De Pombal (1699–1782)

“We Russians have assigned ourselves no other task in life but the cultivation of our own personalities, and when we’re barely past childhood, we set to work to cultivate them, those unfortunate personalities.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)