A timely and comprehensive review of these high-color, low-maintenance garden plants. The sight of a wild landscape covered with heathers in full bloom is breathtaking, so it is little surprise that people have found ways of introducing these rewarding plants into their gardens. In the residential context they excel, offering color in the drabbest months and a huge diversity of height, habit, and other valuable characteristics in return for modest cultural demands. A fascinating account of the unique ecological niche they occupy—including their remarkable adaptation to make use of the nitrogen and phosphorus unavailable to most other plants— provides a fitting context for discussion of their specific cultural needs. The detailed selection of cultivated hardy heathers conveniently provides gardeners with the best garden performers while further lists allow them to search for heathers for specific qualities such as heat tolerance, ground cover, or early summer blooming.
