Erica vagans Holden Pink

The Erica vagans 'Holden Pink' is a delightful variety of wandering heather, particularly floriferous, with a delicate seashell pink colour during its flowering period. Gardeners and bees can enjoy it from August to October. It is a low, wide, dense undershrub with light green needle-like foliage that remains decorative throughout the year. Invite this heather into a large border, rockery, or pot. It thrives in full sun or partial shade in most well-drained soils, even slightly chalky ones.

Erica vagans 'Holden Pink' is a variety introduced to the horticultural market by Holden Clough Nursery in Lancashire, England. Like all heathers this variety belongs to the Ericaceae family. The botanical species Erica vagans, also known as Cornish heather or Wandering heather, is found in Western Europe, from Portugal to England. It is a moorland and light undergrowth plant, growing mainly on acidic, well-drained, rather sandy and poor soils. Some ecotypes, however, thrive on alkaline marl soils rich in magnesium. This hardy species grows at altitudes of up to 1600 m.

The 'Holden Pink' heather is a compact and dense bush that grows to about 30 cm in height and 55 cm in spread. Its branches are slightly prostrate at the base, upright at the ends, and covered with tiny linear leaves. This heather blooms from August to October, with its small bell-shaped flowers measuring 3 mm in length, whorled and grouped in compact, elongated clusters. The flowers are pink porcelain with dark red stamens protruding from the corolla. The foliage, evergreen in winter, changes from light green to slightly olive green in autumn and winter, adding to its visual appeal about 30 cm in height and 55 cm in spread. Its branches are slightly prostrate at the base, well upright at the ends, and covered with tiny linear leaves (8 to 10 mm) that are non-prickly needles. This heather blooms from August to October. Its small bell-shaped flowers, measuring 3 mm long, are whorled and grouped in compact, elongated clusters, often terminated by leaves. They are highly visited by bees. Their colour is porcelain pink. The stamens protruding from the corolla are dark red. The foliage, evergreen in winter, changes from light green to slightly olive green in autumn and winter.

The 'Holden Pink' wandering heather can be planted in a pocket of compost, between rocks in a rockery, or along the edge of a raised bed or pathway, always in light soil, preferably non-chalky. It thrives in the sun, alongside other heathers with concurrent or staggered flowering periods: Erica carnea 'Isabell', E. darleyensis 'Kramer's Rot', Calluna vulgaris 'Winter Chocolate', for example. To add a touch of whimsy to the scene, they can be paired with some low-growing grasses that will lighten their mass. Heathers also form beautiful carpets at the base of larger heathland shrubs such as mountain laurels, brooms, Chinese azaleas, etc.

While heathers, especially those of the genus Erica, are associated with the humid Atlantic heaths of the oceanic north-facing coast (Brittany, Ireland, Scotland), heathers are also adapted to dry climates and limestone soils in Mediterranean regions. However, one of the richest areas in heather species is located far away, in South Africa. In the Cape region, there is a plant formation on acidic soil, equivalent to our Mediterranean scrub vegetation, called Fynbos, which includes nearly 625 heather species out of the 740 recorded worldwide.