Authors: L.
Spreading shrublet 15-30cm or more tall and 30-40cm or more across. Flowers in racemes or umbels, urn-shaped, bright red-purple to white, summer to autumn. Western Europe, north to southern Norway and east to northern Italy, in heaths, on rocky slopes, dry open woodland and moorland. About four hundred cultivars are known, many very similar. Amongst the colour range available the following are recommended: White: 'Alba Minor'. Pale pink: 'Cairn Valley', 'Duncan Eraser', 'Honeymoon', 'Janet', 'Old Rose', 'Pink Foam'. Pink: 'Mrs Ford', 'Pygmaea', 'Pink Ice'. Lavender: 'Lavender Lady', 'Prostrate Lavender'. Amethyst: 'Rock Ruth' (prostrate and capable of developing into a curtain over a metre long), 'Victoria', 'Vivienne Patricia'. Magenta: 'Mrs Dill', 'Stephen Davis'. Purple: 'Cindy', 'Purple Robe'. Ruby: 'Atrorubens', 'Atrosanguinea', 'Coccinea', 'Foxhollow Mahogany', 'Glasnevin Red', 'Lady Skelton', 'Sherry'. Beetroot: 'Angarrack', 'Ashgarth Garnet', 'Contrast', 'Katinka', 'Velvet Night'. These are somewhat taller but of a very rich colour. Yellow-gold foliage (the flowers of small importance): 'Ann Berry', 'Apricot Charm', 'Constance', 'Guernsey Lime' (ground and rock-hugging), 'Golden Drop', 'Rock Pool' (all relatively low). Variegated foliage: 'Glencairn' (magenta flowers, red-tipped leaves), 'Jersey Wonder' (magenta flowers leaves tipped yellow), 'Snow Cream' (white flowers, cream-flecked leaves), 'Sue Lloyd' (pink flowers, red-tipped leaves).
a, E. cinerea; b, E. tetralix; c, E. vagans;