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Erica cinerea
Also called Bell Heather, Heather-bell, Gray Heath, Scots Heath
Scotch heath (Erica cinerea), also called bell heather, is a low, spreading evergreen shrub from western and central Europe, grown for its purple bell-shaped summer flowers. The key to growing it is full sun, sharply drained acidic soil, and avoiding lime.
Erica cinerea, the bell heather, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to western and central Europe.
It is grown as an ornamental plant, cultivated in a wider range of colors. It is drought-tolerant and grows well in full sun with well-drained soil. Like most heathers, it is a calcifuge and dislikes alkaline soils (e.g. calcareous) which cause the symptoms of iron deficiency. Like other cultivated heathers, it is often seen as groundcover among plantings of dwarf conifers.
These cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
E. cinerea is native to the west of Europe, where it is most abundant in Britain and Ireland, France, northern Spain and southern Norway. It also occurs in the Faroe Islands, Belgium, Germany, north-western Italy, and the Netherlands.
Tree Heath · Spanish Heath · Hairy grey heather · Winter heath · Fire heath · Darley Dale Heath · Irish Heath · Hairyflower Heath · Portuguese Heath · Erica mackaiana · Nine-pin heath · Erica multiflora
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Erica cinerea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
