Heather Today, Gone Tomorrow

BACK in April, an article in The Times caught my eye. It bemoaned the declining popularity of heathers.

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Specialist growers, said a spokesman for the Heather Society, are closing down because of falling demand. Kingfisher Nursery in Spalding, Lincolnshire, used to produce nearly one million heather plants a year for the plant-centre trade, but was closed down in June 2017 . Scottish nurseries that once stocked 140 varieties now offer no more than 30.

It’s a common complaint, and not peculiar to heathers. Plants go in and out of fashion just as everything else does. The specialist plant societies ask why their particular horticultural passion is shared by fewer and fewer co-religionists.

If only they knew, they tell themselves, why heathers or roses, irises or violas were less popular than they used to be, it would be possible to do something about it. I’m not so sure: changes of fashion are tied in with much more fundamental movements, such as the desire to travel, to experience excitement and even to visit and enjoy gardens without the faff of having to make one. We may no longer grow heathers, but our hearts still leap up when we see a moorland purple with Calluna vulgaris in August.