Although there is a heather in flower for every month of the year, they are at their most useful — to gardeners and bees — between December and April, when the choice of flowering plant is so limited. The plants we refer to as winter heather are actually three different groups of plants: Calluna, Erica and Daboecia.
Even though they appear very similar at first glance, they are easy to tell apart. Calluna has almost scaly stems, created by overlapping leaves, Erica has leaves like needles, and Daboecia is notable for producing much larger flowers, and for more elliptical leaves. At this time of the year Erica is the heather to look out for; in particular Erica carnea and Erica x darleyensis,