Veronica suits most gardens
Veronica was renamed Hebe twice and remains under that name
People who like gardening are lucky that we live in such an accommodating climate that suits a wide range of plants.
The choice of plants for the south-east is huge compared to many other countries and even within Ireland and, therefore, we can fill our entire garden with a selection of hardy plants that will thrive and grow away well.
It is always nice to have some unusual plants included which bring about a feeling of being in a special place, and these can be provided by using hardy plants that have different variations in flowers or foliage. You can overdo it with these plants so, a rule of thumb is that you can have about 1 different feature plant to every 10 normal variety.
Veronica was the lovely name for a popular evergreen shrub but, botanists got in the way and decided it should be changed to Hebe in 1929. This has continued until 2001 when they changed their minds again and said they got it wrong and changed it back to Veronica and, there it stayed until it changed back to Hebe again where it now remains.
Anyway, most importantly, these versatile shrubs can be in flower from spring until autumn and, due to their waxy or glossy leaves are able to withstand difficult conditions which, makes them suitable for seaside or coastal conditions. In addition there are Hebe’s which grow low to the ground all the way up to those that reach 2m high, and among these are about 100 species from which there are many hundreds of varieties to choose from. I suppose it is common sense for the majority of plants really but, Hebe’s do not like heavy waterlogged ground either and prefer it to be free draining but, after that will tolerate a variety of soils of indifferent constitution and fertility.
It might be clearer to divide hebe varieties into different sections to help in the selection process and, the first are those that are used as hedging to withstand the salt sea winds and the main type is Hebe x franciscana ‘Sea Breeze’ which is one of the hardiest and has bright blue flowers and H.’brachysiphon’ and ‘salicifolia’ both white or white-tinged blue and are good forms too. The next section are those that are medium growing up to about 2m (6’) and include ‘La Seduisante’ reddish-purple and ’Purple Queen’ purple foliage and flowers. After that, the vast majority are the garden varieties that grow near the ground and all the way up to 1m (3’) such as armstrongii 30cm (1’), ‘Autumn Glory’ 75cm (30”), ‘Carl Teschner’ 15cm (6”), ‘Emerald Green’ 30cm (1’), ‘Mrs Winder’ 1m (3’), ‘Wiri’ series growing between 45-75cm (18-30”).
All of the above are good garden varieties but, there are some that do not give a good show of flowers but, are as tough as old boots and are useful where the site is more exposed and you are happy enough that something will grow there at all and these varieties include- albicans, buxifolia, pinguifolia ‘Pagei’, rakaiensis and ‘Red Edge’.
