Where have all the heathers gone?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24823/Sibbaldia.2022.1887Keywords:
Calluna, Erica, Daboecia, horticulture, conservationAbstract
Heathers have been cultivated for several centuries, both the hardy heaths (Calluna, Daboecia and Erica) from the northern hemisphere and the more frost-tender species of Erica from southern Africa known as Cape heaths. In the late 19th century, a number of heather gardens were created, especially in Britain, and the popularity of heathers as long-lasting garden plants reached its zenith in western Europe and temperate North America in the late 20th century. At about the same time, deliberate breeding and selecting of Calluna vulgaris (ling) for flowers that lack normal sexual parts and remain bud-like led to a revolution in heather production with tens of millions of these bud-bloomer Calluna propagated each year for an ephemeral trade dominated by throwaway plants. Concomitantly, the diversity of hardy heathers offered by the trade has declined sharply with a small number of artificially raised clones, protected by plant breeders’ rights, now dominating the market. In contrast, the discovery of living lineages of a few Erica species that are extinct in the wild in South Africa has led to successful reintroduction programmes, particularly of Erica verticillata. The Erica Conservation Consortium, inaugurated in 2020, aims to coordinate and prioritise ex situ conservation of endangered Cape heaths.
References
ANONYMOUS (1877). Drummond Castle. Gardeners’ Chronicle, new series, 7: 688–689.
BISGROVE, R. (1990). The National Trust Book of the English Garden. Viking, London.
BLOOM, A. (1986). Conifers and Heathers for a Year Round Garden. Marshall Cavendish, London.
COATS, P. (1970). Great Gardens of Britain. Spring Books, London.
DALLIMORE, W. (1910). The heath garden. In: MEYER, F.W. (COOK, E.T., ed.), Rock and Water Gardens: Their Making and Planting: with Chapters on Wall and Heath Gardening. Country Life Ltd, London, pp. 196–222.
DARWIN, E. (1789). The Botanic Garden, Part II. Containing The Loves of the Plants, a Poem. Lichfield.
DENKEWITZ, L. (1987). Heidegärten. Ulmer, Stuttgart.
EVANS, A. (1974). Edinburgh Botanic Garden. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 2(3): 20–22.
EVERETT, D. (2000). Erica arborea – the pipe smoker’s dream. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 2000: 11–14.
EVERETT, D. (2004). Abbotswood Gardens – one hundred years of heathers. Heathers, 4: 35–40.
FORSYTH, A. (1873). Hardy heaths. The Florist & Pomologist, August 1873: 174–175.
G. (1848). Trentham Hall, one of the seats of the Duke of Sutherland. Gardeners’ Chronicle, 21 October: 703.
HARRINGER, R., WULFF, E.M.T., MATWAY, M., KRENEK, M., KNIGHT, A., PROTHERO, J. & ABREU, M. (2013). The affiliated societies and their histories. Heathers, 10: 49–67.
HILTON-TAYLOR, C. (1996). Threatened Ericaceae in southern Africa. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 1996: 7–16.
HITCHCOCK, A. (2003). Erica verticillata is brought back from the brink of extinction. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 2003: 45–50.
HITCHCOCK, A. (2007). The return of Erica verticillata. Veld & Flora, 93(1): 14–17.
HITCHCOCK, A. & REBELO, A.G. (2017). The restoration of Erica verticillata – a case study in species and habitat restoration and implications for the Cape flora. Sibbaldia, 15: 39–63. doi: https://doi.org/10.24823/Sibbaldia.2017.222
JEKYLL, G. (1913). Wall and Water Gardens, with Chapters on the Rock-garden and the Heath-garden (5th edn). Country Life, London.
JOHNSON, A.T. (1928). The Hardy Heaths and Some of Their Nearer Allies. Gardeners’ Chronicle, London.
JULIAN, T.A. (1994). The Heather Society and Northern Horticultural Society’s joint heather reference collection at Harlow Carr. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 1994: 5–8.
KRAMER, K. (2017). The development of heather production in Germany, particularly Calluna vulgaris: from wild heather to a commercial ornamental plant. Heathers, 14: 15–21.
LETTS, J.F. (1966). Handbook of Hardy Heaths and Heathers. The Heather Specialist, Windlesham.
LOTHIAN, J. [1845]. Practical Hints on the Culture and General Management of Alpine or Rock Plants. W.H. Lizars, Edinburgh.
MARTYN, T. (ED.) (1807). The Gardener’s and Botanist’s Dictionary … by the late Philip Miller, F.R.S. Vol. 1, part 2 Cla–I. F.C. & J. Rivington et al., London.
METHENY, D. (1991). Hardy Heather Species and Some Related Plants. North American Heather Society & Frontier Publishing, Seaside, OR.
NELSON, E.C. (2001). Dr Charles Stuart’s heather rediscovered in Connemara, Ireland. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 2001: 35–38.
NELSON, E.C. (2011). Hardy Heathers from the Northern Hemisphere: Calluna, Daboecia, Erica. Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
NELSON, E.C. (2012). Continuing the quest for Richard Potter (1844–1922). Heathers, 9: 45–47.
NELSON, E.C. & KING, W.J. (2007). James Lothian (1817–1871) and his book Practical Hints on the Culture and General Management of Alpine or Rock Plants. Huntia, 13(2): 143–154.
NELSON, E.C. & OLIVER, E.G.H. (2004). Cape heaths in European gardens: the early history of South African Erica species in cultivation, their deliberate hybridization and the orthographic bedlam. Bothalia, 34(2): 127–140. doi: https://doi.org/10.4102/abc.v34i2.427
NELSON, E.C. & SMALL, D.J. (EDS) (2000). International Register of Heather Names, Volume 1: Hardy Cultivars and European Species (4 parts). The Heather Society, Creeting St Mary.
NELSON, E.C. & SMALL, D.J. (EDS) (2004–2005). International Register of Heather Names, Volume 2: African Species, Hybrids and Cultivars (4 parts). The Heather Society, Creeting St Mary.
OLIVER, E.G.H. (2000). Systematics of Ericeae (Ericaceae: Ericoideae) species with indehiscent and partially dehiscent fruits. Contribution from the Bolus Herbarium, 19.
OLIVER, E.G.H. (2003). Footnote … (1 November 2002) [to Hitchcock 2003]. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 2003: 50.
O’NEILL, J. & NELSON, E.C. (1995). Introduction of St Dabeoc’s heath into English gardens, 1763. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 1995: 27–32.
PIRIE, M.D., BLACKHALL-MILES, R., BOURKE, G., CROWLEY, D., EBRAHIM, I., FOREST, F., KNAACK, M., KOOPMAN, R., LANSDOWNE, A., NÜRK, N., OSBORNE, J., PEARCE, T., ROHRAUER, D., SMIT, M. & WILMAN, V. (SUBMITTED). Preventing species extinctions: a Global Conservation Consortium for Erica. Plants, People, Planet.
PROUDLEY, B. & PROUDLEY, V. (1974). Heathers in Colour. Blandford Books, London.
RAIMONDO, D., VAN STADEN, L., FODEN, W., VICTOR, J.E., HELME, N.A., TURNER, R.C., KAMUNDI, D.A. & MANYAMA, P.A. (2009). Red list of South African plants 2009. Strelitzia no. 25.
ROBINSON, W. (1870). The Wild Garden. J. Murray, London.
ROBINSON, W. (1897). The English Flower Garden (5th edn). J. Murray, London.
ROBINSON, W. (1911). Gravetye Manor or Twenty Years’ Work around an Old Manor Home. J. Murray, London.
ROBINSON, W. (1918). Foreword. In: MESSEL, L., A Garden Flora: Trees and Flowers Grown in the Gardens at Nymans … 1890–1915. Country Life & George Newnes, London.
ROCHEFOUCAULD, B. DE LA (1979). La bruyère. Dargaud Editeur, Neuilly-sur-Seine.
SALISBURY, R. (1796). Prodromus Stirpium in Horto de Chapel Allerton. London.
SALISBURY, R. (1802). Species of Erica. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 6: 316–388. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1802.tb00489.x
SCHRÖDER, J. (2005). The explosion of bud-flowers. Heathers, 2: 17–18.
SCOTT, M.H.B. (1906). Houses and Gardens. G. Newnes, London.
[SINCLAIR, G.] (1825). Hortus Ericaeus Woburnensis: or, a Catalogue of the Heaths, in the Collection of the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey. [London.]
SKOWNO, A.L., POOLE, C., RAIMONDO, D., SINK, K., VAN DEVENTER, H., VAN NIEKERK, L., HARRIS, L., SMITH-ADAO, L., TOLLEY, K., ZENGEYA, T., FODEN, W., MIDGLEY, G., & DRIVER, A. (2019). National Biodiversity Assessment 2018: the status of South Africa’s ecosystems and biodiversity. Synthesis Report. SANBI, Pretoria. Available online: http://opus.sanbi.org:80/jspui/handle/20.500.12143/6362 (accessed January 2022).
SMALL, D.J. & SMALL, A. (EDS) (1992). Handy Guide to Heathers. Denbeigh Heather Nurseries, Creeting St Mary.
SMALL, D.J. & SMALL, A. (EDS) (1998). The Heather Society’s Handy Guide to Heathers (2nd edn). Denbeigh Heather Nurseries for the Heather Society, Creeting St Mary.
SMALL, D.J. & SMALL, A. (EDS) (2001). The Heather Society’s Handy Guide to Heathers (3rd edn). The Heather Society, Creeting St Mary.
SMALL, D.J. & WULFF, E.M.T. (2008). Gardening with Hardy Heathers. Timber Press, Portland, OR.
THE FIELD (1888). Hardy heaths. Garden, 34 (5 December): 565–566.
THOMAS, G.S. (1957). Colour in the Winter Garden. J.M. Dent, London.
THOMAS, G.S. (1970). Plants for Ground-cover. J.M. Dent, London.
THOMAS, G.S. (1997). Heathers in the garden.
In: Cuttings from my Garden Notebooks. Sagapress, Sagaponack, NY.
THOMAS, G.S. (2003). Recollections of Great Gardeners. Frances Lincoln, London.
TURPIN, P.G. (1978). Heather gardens no. 4: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Yearbook of the Heather Society, 7: 46–49.
UNDERHILL, T. (1971). Heaths and Heathers: Calluna, Daboecia and Erica. David & Charles, Newton Abbot.
UNDERHILL, T. (1990). Heaths and Heathers: the Grower’s Encyclopaedia. David & Charles, Newton Abbot.
VAN DE LAAR, H. (1974). Het Heidetuinboek. Zonner & Keuning Boeken B.V., Wageningen.
VICKERS, G.P. (1976). A report on a trial to determine the characteristics of cultivated heathers … at Harlow Car [sic] Harrogate. The Heather Society, n.p. (An 8-page supplement entitled Heather trial 1976–81 was issued in 1983.)
X. (1884). Winter bedding. Gardeners’ Chronicle, new series, 21: 371–372.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Charles Nelson, Michael Pirie
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Please read our Open Access, Copyright and Permissions policies for more information.
