the whole "heather / dwarf conifer" thing was all the rage when I left school and went to work at the local garden centre in 1979. Maybe I just had too much of them back then?
My understanding is that Alan Bloom is reviving the beds at Foggy Bottom, incorporating grasses to give movement - I'm sure I saw/heard an interview with him a few months back where he spoke about this - it's what gave me the idea of interplanting the OP's heathers with grasses.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
...if these heathers are winter flowering, then an exciting thing to try is plant a Clematis viticella in amongst them, and allow it to ramble all over the heaths for a vibrant midsummer show.... then cutting the Clematis back to ground level in November, so it conveniently allows the heathers to steal the show....alone....
....Clematis 'Huldine' is another variety that would be suitable, with its upturned flowers..... this is not a new idea.... but an adventurous thing to do... I wouldn't do it with summer flowering heaths though, personally....
..the late John Treasure of Burford House, Shropshire, also recommended growing this way, as noted and enjoyed by the late Christopher Lloyd, in his ''Cuttings - A Year In The Garden''
..as do other breeders it seems... it's for the more adventurous...and if one's heathers are strong growers, as most winter ones usually are, then there shouldn't be a problem... all part of gardening as I see it...
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It would be interesting to have his thoughts
In the sticks near Peterborough
the whole "heather / dwarf conifer" thing was all the rage when I left school and went to work at the local garden centre in 1979. Maybe I just had too much of them back then?
I certainly did Hostafan and I wasn't even a gardener then. Moorland plants in the Cambridgeshire countryside?
In the sticks near Peterborough
My understanding is that Alan Bloom is reviving the beds at Foggy Bottom, incorporating grasses to give movement - I'm sure I saw/heard an interview with him a few months back where he spoke about this - it's what gave me the idea of interplanting the OP's heathers with grasses.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
...if these heathers are winter flowering, then an exciting thing to try is plant a Clematis viticella in amongst them, and allow it to ramble all over the heaths for a vibrant midsummer show.... then cutting the Clematis back to ground level in November, so it conveniently allows the heathers to steal the show....alone....
....Clematis 'Huldine' is another variety that would be suitable, with its upturned flowers..... this is not a new idea.... but an adventurous thing to do... I wouldn't do it with summer flowering heaths though, personally....
..paragraphs 4 and 5..... each to their own I suppose but I do understand your concerns and personal experience...
http://www.gardeninginfozone.com/ground-cover-clematis-plants-for-ground-cover
..the late John Treasure of Burford House, Shropshire, also recommended growing this way, as noted and enjoyed by the late Christopher Lloyd, in his ''Cuttings - A Year In The Garden''
..as do other breeders it seems... it's for the more adventurous...and if one's heathers are strong growers, as most winter ones usually are, then there shouldn't be a problem... all part of gardening as I see it...
Wouldn't it be boring if we all agreed and all our gardens were the same
In the sticks near Peterborough