A garden party in late summer: Hebe

Hebe is the ideal plant for giving your garden and patio boost in late summer.

White, purple, pink or lilac flowers instantly lend fresh energy, and Hebe's foliage varies in colour from pale green to dark green and very pale grey. In the winter and spring some varieties even have claret leaves.

Thanks to the somewhat random structure, the plant has a loose, natural look, and the clusters of flowers are very popular with butterflies and bees. Because Hebe is so versatile, it's often used in beds and borders, rockeries or as pond planting, but it also works well as a container plant on the balcony or patio. Hebe is evergreen, bringing life to the garden throughout the year.

The Hebe range can be divided into two groups:

- The largest consists of generally hardy evergreen species with decorative foliage. The best-known are H. 'Emerald Gem' syn. Green Globe', H. ochracea 'James Sterling', H. 'Autumn Glory', H. pimeloides, H. buxifolia and H. pinguifolia.

- Completely different but also utterly Hebe is the H. andersonii group, also known as shrubby veronica. This flowers in late summer and autumn, and is particularly popular around 1 and 2 November (All Hallows - All Souls Day).