Blueberries and wintergreen – an ericaceous adventure!
It started at the garden centre, where I was helping to put newly arrived plants out in the autumn/winter ‘tub and basket’ display. There’s a good range of ornamental plants on offer, all looking very cute in their youthful stages, in various colours and textures. They might not have the showy flowers of summer bedding, but they’re all interesting plants. The winter garden doesn’t have to look dull! The ones that caught my eye were Gaultheria ‘Very Berry’, cute little plants with dark green leaves, white bell-shaped flowers (they look exactly like little blueberry flowers, because they’re related), and quite large berries ripening from white to pink (ultimately they should go red).
‘Very Berry’ is a cultivar of Gaultheria procumbens, more commonly known as Wintergreen (also Teaberry), a plant native to North America. Wintergreen is a popular flavouring in the US, with a minty taste. Here in the UK it’s a bit divisive, depending on your family’s habits. You see, Wintergreen is the scent given to Germolene antiseptic cream, and if you grew up in a household that uses it, you tend to think of it as a medicinal smell, rather than a food flavour. (I don’t have that handicap, I grew up in a Savlon house
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