Hebe

Hebe (now botanically placed in Veronica) is a large group of evergreen shrubs native chiefly to New Zealand. They are loved for their compact, rounded habit and long flowering season.

The plants form dense, leafy mounds and produce spikes of small flowers, often in shades of purple, blue, pink or white, that draw bees and butterflies over many weeks. Foliage may be glossy green or, in whipcord types, reduced to scale-like leaves resembling a conifer.

Hebes thrive in mild, maritime climates and are a mainstay of coastal and seaside plantings, where they tolerate salt, wind and poor soils.

• Flowers: small flowers packed into cylindrical bottlebrush-like spikes, in purple, blue, pink, magenta or white
• Leaves: opposite, in neat decussate (cross-paired) rows; broad and glossy in most types, or tiny and scale-like in whipcord forms
• Habit: compact, rounded, mounding evergreen, usually 1 to 5 ft tall and wide
• Stems: densely branched; leaf scars often visible along stems
• Bloom time: late spring through autumn, depending on variety

Grows best in full sun to light shade with shelter from harsh cold.

• Water: moderate; keep moist but never waterlogged
• Soil: well-drained, neutral to slightly alkaline; tolerates poor and coastal soils
• Temperature: mostly USDA zones 8 to 10; large-leaved types are more tender than small-leaved ones
• Feeding: light feeding in spring; avoid excess nitrogen
• Pruning: trim lightly after flowering to keep compact; avoid hard cuts into bare wood
• Propagation: semi-hardwood cuttings root easily in summer

Native primarily to New Zealand, with a few species in South America and the Falkland Islands. Hebes grow in coastal cliffs, scrub, grassland and alpine habitats across a wide range of conditions.

In cultivation they are especially popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Pacific coast of North America and other mild maritime climates where they shrug off salt-laden wind.