Beautiful and bold magenta red flowers make Hebe ‘Wiri Jewel’ a shrub to treasure in the garden. The great flower display is remarkable both for its beauty and its lengthy period, often continuing over many months. It’s one of a great series of NZ native Hebes which have been bred by Jack Hobbs at the Auckland Regional Botanic Gardens. Jack, well known to gardeners for his expert tips when he was a regular on Maggie’s Garden Show, is passionate about Hebes and this is one of the newest and best of his outstanding ‘Wiri’ series.

Hebe ‘Wiri Jewel’ is also highly satisfying because it grows so easily and isn’t fussy - give it well drained soil, sunshine and protection from heavy frosts and it will quickly form a handsome bush which, with its shiny, rich green foliage, is attractive to look at even when it isn’t in flower.

Windy sites and poor soils are also no problem for Hebe ‘Wiri Jewel’ and it can be used as a low growing hedge, able to flourish even in tough coastal conditions but just as much at home in good soils and well sheltered gardens. It can be used as a dividing hedge - say between the vegetable and ornamental areas, at the edge of a driveway or lawn or to soften a boundary fence.

In gardens with a strong design element, Hebe ‘Wiri Jewel’ is a stunner when used in big groups. You can use bold background shrubs such as the evergreen Magnolia ‘Little Gem’ or one of the pretty Pittosporums such as ‘Ivory Pillar‘ and in the foreground Arthropodium ‘Matapouri Bay’ which is grown as much for its pale green, broad, evergreen foliage as the pretty spikes of cream flowers in summer.

One of the best ways of having a low maintenance yet appealing garden is to plant a group of compact growing mixed shrubs in a border, positioning them so they will meet up and form a dense mass of weed smothering foliage. A glance at the plant labels, which are packed with information these days, will tell you the expected width so it’s easy to work out planting distances.

Hebe ‘Wiri Jewel’ is a great shrub for such a low maintenance border. You can combine it with several other compact growing, bushy Hebes with similarly generous flowering habits such as ‘Totara Jewel’ and ‘Wiri Spears’ and with the dwarf Kowhai ‘Dragon’s Gold’ and the low growing rata Metrosideros ‘Jaffa’ for late winter and spring colour. For colour contrast, add the sky blue flowered, bushy Ceanothus ‘Joyce Coulter’ which is magnificent in spring and the evergreen Hydrangea relative Dichroa ‘Blue Sapphires’ for a spectacular flowering performance throughout summer and autumn.

If you long for stunning, smile-inducing colours in your garden, contemplate mingling Hebe ‘Wiri Jewel’ with the big, saucer-shaped flowers of Tibouchina ‘Grandiflora’ and in the foreground the all summer flowering, deep blue Ceratostigma ‘Forest Blue’. You could even add the golden fruited Meyer lemon for a mingling of beauty and usefulness.