This is one of those easy going shrubs that you can plant and forget about, secure in the knowledge that it will establish quickly and provide you with masses of colourful flowers and attractive dark green foliage. Its requirements are plenty of sunshine, well drained soil (it will perform well even in quite poor soils and sandy beach gardens), and protection from heavy frosts.

In coastal gardens, it combines happily with native shrubs such as Coprosma ‘Karo Red’, a compact grower which has dramatic chocolate coloured foliage in winter, turning to bronze and green shades in summer, or the chameleon-like Coprosma ‘Pink Splendour’ which has apricot and red winter shadings, changing to apricot and green in summer. For flower colour, mingle Hebe ‘Wiri Desire’ with pink flowered, compact growing Grevillea ‘Nancy Otzen’, or ‘Zieria ‘Pink Crystals’, which has tiny, deep green foliage, smothered in little, powder-pink flowers in winter and spring.

For a contrast of form and colour, plant Hebe ‘Wiri Desire’ with Cordyline varieties such as ‘Green Goddess’, which has a distinctive, palm-like shape, or the burgundy coloured Cordyline ‘Red Star’.

In gardens which are blessed with good soil, Hebe ‘Wiri Desire’ makes a handsome companion for Michelia yunnanensis, which is like a low growing, small leafed magnolia, with deep green and very handsome foliage all year round and in spring masses of beautiful, cream, highly scented flowers. In similar situations it’s also charming with blue flowered Dichroa ‘Blue Sapphires’, pink or yellow Abutilons, and bushy, perennial Salvias such as ‘Indigo Spires’, which flowers all summer and autumn, or if the climate is mild right through winter too.