Depending on which heather species you choose with their 1 from the official 18 heather colours in the top menu, you can have flowers throughout the year, which is very useful for their pollination by bees.

Click on the 1 in the Colour Wheel below to link to those thumbnails in their Comparison Gallery -
with their index of those bee-pollinated plants in addition to heathers of that flower colour in that month -
to compare their blooms:-

"RHS Plants for Pollinators
There are lots of ways to make your garden as perfect for pollinators as possible with the RHS
We have compiled two downloadable plant lists to help gardeners identify plants that will provide nectar and pollen for bees and many other types of pollinating insects:
 

• RHS Perfect for Pollinators – Garden Plants (1.3MB)
 
• RHS Perfect for Pollinators - Wildflowers (711kB)

How to attract and support pollinating insects

• Aim to have plants that are attractive to pollinating insects in flower from early spring to late autumn.
• Grow garden plants with flowers that attract pollinating insects.
• Avoid plants with double or multi-petalled flowers. Such flowers may lack nectar and pollen, or insects may have difficulty in gaining access.
• Never use pesticides on plants when they are in flower.
• Where appropriate, British wildflowers can be an attractive addition to planting schemes and may help support a wider range of pollinating insects.
• Observe the plants in your garden. If you know of plants with blooms that regularly attract insects, let us know.
• Encourage bees by keeping honeybees yourself or allowing a beekeeper to place hives in your garden. Nest boxes containing cardboard tubes or hollow plant stems, or holes drilled in blocks of wood will provide nest sites for some species of solitary bees. Such nests are available from garden centres or you can make your own (holes/tubes should be in a mixture of sizes with a diameter of 2 - 8mm / (116 - 516 in))." from the RHS.
   

"How to Grow Heathers and Heaths

Easy-to-grow heathers bring year-round color to gardens in most any climate.

When people mention heather, they are almost always talking about two different genera of plants: heaths and heathers. Although both belong to the Ericaceae family, they are botanically different and are divided into the Calluna genus and the Erica genus. For practical purposes, however, they are nearly identical, sharing color, form, and growth habits. They are all evergreen, well-mannered, and low-maintenance plants that thrive in similar conditions of sunlight, water, and soil. Winter hardiness is the only major difference between species.

Must-Know Facts About Heather

All true heathers are cultivars of just one species, Calluna vulgaris (which some botanists erroneously classify as Erica vulgaris), and there are easily more than 500 varieties available. Most are summer-blooming, ranging from white to rose to deep purple, and their foliage is green to fire orange; their leaves are small and scalelike. Most form low-growing mounds or spreading mats. For the heather lover in the North, these are the plants of choice, as opposed to the true heaths, which offer more colors but are generally less hardy. Calluna are typically hardy in Zones 5-7 but may thrive as far north as Zone 3 with adequate winter protection or snow cover. These low, mounding shrubs are the ling of Scotland, the famous heather of the Highlands.

The true heaths belong to the Erica genus and include more than 700 species and countless cultivars, such as winter heath (Erica carnea), bell heath (Erica cinerea), Darley Dale heath (Erica x darleyensis), Cornish heath (Erica vagans), and cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix). Hardiness ranges widely; for instance, Erica carnea will bloom under snow, but many of the South African varieties, such as blood-red heath (Erica cruenta), are best left to the greenhouse and florist trades. The true heaths offer an amazing range of foliage and bloom color, well beyond the pinks of the heathers; they also come in taller shrub forms and even some small trees. With hundreds of species and cultivars suitable for hardiness Zones 7-9 or 10 (and a few, such as Erica carnea, even hardier), the heaths provide a wide variety of colors and bloom times to fill Southern gardens.

Other than heaths' greater susceptibility to cold weather, the main difference between heaths and heathers is that heaths have needlelike leaves rather than flat leaves. The scalelike leaves of heather, in fact, feature tiny hairs, which give the foliage a grayish cast. Calluna cultivars also produce blooms where the corolla (or whorl of petals) is completely encased by the calyx (the usually green "leaves" directly beneath a bloom); the Erica species and varieties feature prominent corollas and small calyxes, which often create a two-tone effect to the blooms. However, the bloom shapes are so nearly the same, says Kate Herrick of Rock Spray Nursery in Truro, Massachusetts, "that only a botanist or a true fanatic will know the difference."

Of course, the real reason to plant heath or heather is the colorful bloom and foliage. Imagine Monet's palette loaded with hues of blue, yellow, gold, rose, and green. Imagine a painting built from brush strokes of tall shrubs, lush mounds, and spreading mats. Plant different types of heathers and heaths, and you can have a steady play of form and color as new plants come into bloom when others fade. Plant several varieties en masse on a slope, and an Impressionist's landscape bursts into vivid life.

As heather fans know, selecting plants by color isn't as simple as deciding you like pink blooms; selection by bloom color is actually secondary to the foliage display. A heather's evergreen foliage changes and intensifies in hue during cold weather. For example, Calluna vulgaris 'Firefly' has copper foliage in summer that changes to brick red in winter; Erica x watsonii 'Dawn' (a Watson's heath) has red spring growth that turns to gold later in the year. It is this variability that makes heaths and heathers such arresting plants for the landscape.

"There are so many colors available that selecting plants can be intimidating, and people often make the process more complicated than needed," Herrick says. The colors are so harmonious, however, that a homeowner should pay more attention to plant sizes and spacing, she advises. Selecting plants that will fill a designated space is easier to achieve than trying to work a plant of every bloom and foliage color into the scheme.

"They are a fascinating family of plants," Herrick sums up, "and a lot more fun than red geraniums." Try painting some into your landscape this fall.

Landscaping with Heather

Heaths and heathers add a low-maintenance jolt of color and interest to the landscape, regardless of the season. Their evergreen foliage (in shades of green, yellow, bronze, and red) sparkles against the weary winter backdrop of tans and browns or the white of snow.

Plant heaths and heathers in open areas, up hillsides, or along pathways. They pair especially well with dwarf conifers, which require similar acidic soil conditions. They tolerate poor, rocky soil and even salt spray, so they're marvelous along coastal hillsides where little else will grow.

Heaths grow about 1 foot tall by 1 1/2 feet wide; heathers about 2 feet tall by 2 to 3 feet wide. Space both about as far apart as their mature width and at least 2 feet away from other shrubs to foster good air circulation. For naturalistic mass plantings, Kate Herrick at Rock Spray Nursery suggests multiplying the square footage of your planting area by 0.44 to determine the number of heaths or heathers you'll need. (A 10-x-10-foot area would require 44 plants.)

How to Plant and Care for Heather

The growing conditions for these colorful plants are similar. Karla Lortz of Heaths and Heathers Nursery offers these tips.

• Prep the soil. Heaths and heathers are acid lovers, preferring a soil pH of 4.5-5.5. Although some heaths are more tolerant of alkaline soil (see list of lime tolerant cultivars sold by the trade from Kingfisher Nursery), particularly Irish heath (Erica erigena), most types will struggle. Work in damp peat moss or other acidic soil amendments, particularly if your soil is pH neutral (6.5-7.5). Till or loosen the soil and dig holes twice as wide as each plant's root ball to encourage roots to spread.
• Provide drainage. Without good drainage, these plants just won't grow. For clay soil (which provides neither the right pH nor proper drainage), build a raised bed with equal parts topsoil, sand, and composted bark or peat moss, which will create acidic soil that properly drains. For boggy soil (which may be the right pH but too wet), make a modest berm.
• Plant. Shear newly purchased plants to encourage bushiness, and plant in spring or early autumn. Water twice a week for the first several months so the ground is moist but not soggy. This will encourage rapid, vigorous growth to get plants established. Apply a mulch of your choice, preferably an acidic one (such as pine straw, peat moss, or leaf mold). After two or three years, heathers and heaths are generally drought-tolerant and can take care of themselves.
• Allow for spacing. Space the plants about as far apart as the plant's mature width to allow air circulation, which is important for good foliage growth and color but close enough so the plants will eventually mound together. If you are planting in Zones 7-9, Lortz recommends whorled heath (Erica manipuliflora; 'Korcula' is a good cultivar).
• Consider sun exposure. Allow for a minimum of six hours of sun a day for best foliage effect. The foliage will be best on the south side of the plant, especially for red varieties. Six or more hours of sun are also recommended with afternoon shade in hotter areas. Too much shade makes the plants leggy and dulls the brilliance of those that have colorful foliage.
• Consider winter exposure. Avoid situating plants in areas that receive harsh winter winds; as evergreens, they suffer severe dehydration. Or apply a winter mulch such as evergreen boughs. In areas with deep snow cover, plants will be fine.
• Don't fuss. Heaths and heathers actually like poor soil. Giving annual doses of fertilizer is deadlier than not giving any at all. Fertilize once with rhododendron feed upon planting -- then leave your plants alone. About the only work you need to do is give them a yearly shearing. This is best done in the spring before any buds have set or, for winter bloomers, after the flowers have faded. Calluna vulgaris should be cut back below the old flowers; the Erica spp. can be lightly pruned to encourage bushiness.

Heathers

Unless otherwise noted, heathers (Calluna vulgaris) are hardy in Zones 5-7 and are no more than 2 feet high and slightly more as wide.

Heaths

Heaths (Erica species/cultivars) tolerate more heat than do heathers and are generally good choices for Southern regions, though they dislike extremely humid areas. Most species grow about 1 foot tall by 1.5 feet wide." from Better Homes and Gardens in America.

When taking photos of heathers, it is advisable not to zoom and then take the photo. The individual leaf, bud or flower is not normally in focus even when using a Canon camera with a 50 x optical zoom. This is because those items are less than 5 mm in length and the focus of the camera takes account of a larger area. If the Canon is about 4 inches (10 cms) away from the item to be photoed and the focusing area is on the leaves, buds or flowers, then being in Automatic mode, the camera will take a photo where those items inside that focus rectangle are in focus. The resulting JPEG image from the camera can then be decreased in size from the image size in pixels to fit the rectangle into which you wish to display and publish that image. The same is true for Alpine Plants (Rock Garden Plants) in Alpine Houses.

Ivydene Horticultural Services .

Site design and content copyright ©December 2014. Index Page for each Comparison Page of Heather Comparison Gallery created in this Gallery in December 2014. Chris Garnons-Williams.

DISCLAIMER: Links to external sites are provided as a courtesy to visitors. Ivydene Horticultural Services are not responsible for the content and/or quality of external web sites linked from this site.

It is possible that the carrier pigeon used in the original link may have died and thus that link currently may no longer be functional. I believe that the other 1,000,000 links in this site might be okay. 

It is possible that you being visitor number 9.75 (a teenager) to this site might inform me that a link is no longer operational using the mail-link of
Ivydene
Horticultural
Services
(White text on Burgundy colour background) under the Worm Logo on every page in this website.

So far - zip.

Some heathers besides having flowers have foliage colours that change from 1 season to the next season in the UK -

• Spring (March, April, May),
• Summer (June, July, August),
• Autumn (September, October, November) and
• Winter (December, January, February).

The Heather Comparison Gallery provides comparison pages of the:-

• 18 flower colours with flower and flower stalk as shown in the menu table at the top of this page,
• 18 flower colours with flower and flower stalk in each of the months that heather flowers,
• 7 foliage colours with foliage stalk and form per season as shown in the menu table at the top of this page, and
• Each of the Heather Cultivar Groups with flowers

and the Index for the heathers shown in each of these Comparison Pages is in 1 or more Index Pages in the relevant Heather Evergreen Shrub Index Gallery instead of being in the same Comparison page, due to their being too many to include within the available space.
THIS COMBINATION OF FOLIAGE COLOUR CHANGE CAN BE USED IN YOUR GARDEN DESIGN TO AID DIFFERENT GROUNDCOVER FOLIAGE COLOURS IN DIFFERENT SEASONS, together with the months of flower buds before flowering and the post months of seedheads.

<-------- Title of Page

(o) in front of Page Name or Index Page No in this Main Menu Table indicates that all pages linked to from that cell have content.

SPRING FOLIAGE COLOUR
with Foliage Stalk and Form

Index Page No.

AUTUMN FOLIAGE COLOUR
with Foliage Stalk and Form

Index Page No.

CULTIVAR GROUP with Flowers
Erica Hardy Heaths:-

Index Page No.

CULTIVAR GROUP with Flowers
Erica Hardy Heaths:-

Index Page No.

HEATHER EVERGREEN SHRUB
INDEX GALLERY PAGES

Index Page No.

Site Map

Introduction

Index Page No.

Click on Colour below to change to its Heather Flower Colour Page with Flower and Flower Stalk

Spr-Bronze

1

(o) Aut-Bronze

(o) 1

Erica garforthensis

(o) 1

Erica tetralix

1

CULTIVAR GROUP with Flowers

FLOWERING SEASON
with Flower and Flower Stalk

(o) H0
White

Index Page No.

(o) H1 Amethyst

Index Page No.

H2
Mauve

Index Page No.

(o) Spr-Green

(o) 1

(o) Aut-Green

(o)
1 2

Erica gaudificans

(o) 1

Erica umbellata

1

Andromeda

(o) 1

(o) January
Winter

(o)
1 2

(o) 1

(o) 1

1

Spr-Grey

1

(o) Aut-Grey

(o) 1

(o) Erica x griffithsii

(o) 1

Erica vagans

1

Bruckenthalia spiculifolia changed to
Erica spiculifolia

1

(o)February
Winter

(o)
1 2

(o) H3
Lavender

(o) 1

H4
Lilac

1

H5
Ruby

1

(o) Spr-Orange

(o) 1

Aut-Orange

1

Erica krameri

(o) 1

Erica veitchii

1

(o) Calluna

(o) 1

(o) March
Spring

(o)
1 2

Spr-Red

1

Aut-Red

1

(o) Erica lusitanica

(o) 1

Erica watsonii

1

(o) Daboecia

(o) 1

(o) April
Spring

(o)
1 2

H6
Cerise

1

(o) H7
Rose Pink

(o) 1

(o) H8
Pink

(o) 1

(o) Spr-Yellow

(o) 1

(o) Aut-Yellow

(o) 1

(o) Erica mackayana

(o) 1

Erica williamsii

1

Erica Hardy Heaths:-

(o) May
Spring

(o) 1

(o) Spr-Other Colour

(o) 1

Aut-Other Colour

1

Erica maderensis

(o) 1

Erica x afroeuropea

(o) 1

(o) June
Summer

(o) 1

(o) H9
Beetroot

(o) 1

(o) H10
Purple

(o) 1

(o) H11
Lilac Pink

(o) 1

(o) Erica manipuliflora

(o) 1

Erica andevalensis now treated as Erica mackayana ssp andevalensis

1

(o) July
Summer

(o) 1

SUMMER FOLIAGE COLOUR
with Foliage Stalk and Form

WINTER FOLIAGE COLOUR
with Foliage Stalk and Form

Erica multiflora

1

SEED COLOUR

(o) Erica arborea

(o) 1

(o) August
Summer

(o) 1

(o) H12 Heliotrope

(o) 1

H13 Crimson

1

(o) H14 Magenta

(o) 1

(o) Sum-Bronze

(o) 1

(o) Win-Bronze

(o) 1

(o) Erica
oldenburgensis

(o) 1

Seed

1

(o) Erica x arendsiana

(o) 1

(o) September
Autumn

(o) 1

(o) Sum-Green

(o)
1 2

(o) Win-Green

(o)
1 2

Erica platycodon

1

(o) Erica australis

(o) 1

(o) October
Autumn

(o) 1

H15 Salmon

1

(o) H16
Shell Pink

(o) 1

(o) H17 Multi-Coloured

(o) 1

Sum-Grey

1

Win-Grey

1

Erica scoparia

1

BED PICTURES

(o) Erica azorica
(Syn.
Erica scoparia subsp. azorica)

(o) 1

(o) November
Autumn

(o) 1

Sum-Orange

1

(o) Win-Orange

(o) 1

Erica sicula

1

Garden

1

(o) Erica carnea

(o)
1 2

(o) December
Winter

(o) 1

Sum-Red

1

(o) Win-Red

(o) 1

(o) Erica spiculifolia

(o) 1

(o) Erica ciliaris

(o) 1

Website Structure Explanation and
User Guidelines

(o) Sum-Yellow

(o) 1

(o) Win-Yellow

(o) 1

(o) Erica stuartii

(o) 1

(o) COMMENTS

(o) Erica cinerea

(o) 1

Sum-Other Colour

1

(o) Win-Other Colour

(o) 1

Erica terminalis

1

(o) Erica x darleyensis

(o) 1

The 2 rows of "Height x Spread in inches (cms) (1 inch = 2.5 cms, 12" = 1 foot = 30 cms) and Comment" state the Heather Description from 'Handy Guide to Heathers Descriptions & Suppliers of over 1000 varieties" by David & Anne Small, published in 1992 by Denbeigh Heather Nurseries (ISBN 0-9519160-0-9). This gives the official Heather Society flower colour(s) and foliage colour(s).
Photos from Chris Garnons-Williams are added to that respective flower colour or foliage colour page in the Shrub Heather Gallery and the relevant index page in this gallery IRRESPECTIVE OF THE ACTUAL FLOWER COLOUR OR FOLIAGE COLOUR (stated in the Handy Guide) IN THE IMAGE THAT WAS TAKEN BY CHRIS GARNONS-WILLIAMS.

(o) Erica erigena

(o) 1

End of Main Menu - See Sub-Menu and Data below:-