It’s not just that the purple-blue flowers of Hebe ‘Ohau’ are beautiful, they’re also produced over a very long period, starting in spring and continuing on well into summer. A little light pruning of the old flower heads as they finish will encourage even more blooms, but this is one of those generous hearted shrubs that will keep on flowering profusely even when completely neglected. All you have to do is plant it in a sunny spot where the soil is well drained and let it get on with what it does best - making a great show in the garden.

‘Ohau’ and other bushy, free flowering hybrid Hebes are often recommended as ideal for new gardens, because they establish so quickly and provide flowers while slower growing shrubs are establishing. This is true, they’re perfect for the task, but it shouldn’t be overlooked that they’re also just as good for including in established gardens, lending their charms to all sorts of planting schemes, from the simple to the sophisticated.

The colour of Hebe ‘Ohau’ is great for mixing with a wide range of flowers. It combines strikingly with the sky blue, big flower heads of Dichroa ‘Blue Sapphires’ and in windy sites makes an astonishing partner for the pinkish-purple flowers of Polygala ‘Dazzler’. A bit of kiwi character is created by planting it with the ornamental grass Chionochloa flavicans, which has plumes of greenish-cream flowers, and scarlet kaka beak, Clianthus ‘Kaka King’, the parrot-beak shaped flowers of which start in winter and continue on into spring.

Hebe ‘Ohau’ looks a treat with handsome foliage plants too - the big, burgundy leaves of Brachyglottis rangiora ‘Purpurea’, the light green of renga renga, Arthropodium ‘Matapouri Bay’, shiny silver of Astelia ‘Silver Spears’ or Astelia banksii, Coprosma ‘Green & Gold’ or dark, shiny, sophisticated green of Magnolia ‘Little Gem’.