Foliage which is handsome all year round and a pretty show of flowers through the warmer months make this small, rounded shrub an inspired choice for small gardens and the foreground of shrub borders.
Hebe ‘Red Edge’ is also good for growing in containers, the intriguing foliage colours suitable for subtle or bright coloured pots.
The flowers are a feature during summer, starting out as pink buds, opening lilac and fading to white. But it’s the foliage that’s the big talking point, especially in spring when the red margins take on such an intense colouring that there’s an overall red hue to the foliage. The rest of the year the foliage is a delightful blue green edged with red.
In small gardens Hebe ‘Red Edge’ fits in well with other little shrubs, such as white flowered Adenandra uniflora and the pretty little native Parahabe ‘Snowcap’ which has small white flowers for months on end. Try it too with Tetratheca ‘Bibelles’ which has tiny, dark green foliage and masses of small, very pretty, bell shaped, mauve-purple flowers in spring.
It’s great for contrast with bold foliage, but not too large growing, plants such as Yucca ‘Denby’s Dream’ which has cream and green leaves.
Hebe ‘Red Edge’ also makes a great contrast among ground covers. When surrounded with ground hugging, pale blue Bacopa ‘Blue Showers’ or dark sky blue flowered Lithodora ‘Grace Ward’ it makes an eye-catching combination.
The foliage is striking enough to contrast with succulents, especially those with grey-blue foliage such as some of the echeverias. Or mingle it with grey foliage grasses such as Festuca coxii or Elymus hispidus and the smaller growing English lavenders, such as ‘Violet Intrigue’ which has elegant, dark, grey-green foliage to set off the deep blue flowers.
Remember to grow Hebe ‘Red Edge’ where it gets lots of sunshine as this brings out the best of its very special colourings. It is cold hardy, so will grow happily out in the open in even very frosty gardens.
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Schemes & Themes
using Liddle Wonder Plants