Hedera helix 'Erecta'

Name: Hedera helix Erecta – Upright Ivy for Dry & Shaded Gardens
Brand: Hedera
SKU: 57317206851957
Price: 6.9 EUR
Availability: InStock

€6,90

Organic

Sustainable

Locally grown

Hedera helix Erecta is a mutation of common ivy, notable for its striking structure of erect, candelabra-like growth and its small, geometrically arranged leaves.

Hedera helix Erecta is a moderately fast-growing shrub that forms an attractive clump about 1 meter wide and tall.

The leaves are small and triangular, arranged alternately and symmetrically on thick, upright stems, shifting from a soft light green to dark grayish as they age.

Each leaf is contrasted by pale veins, giving it a marbled appearance.

In autumn, its small and inconspicuous green flowers form globular clusters and provide excellent nectar for bees. These are followed by bluish-black berries, toxic to humans but an excellent winter food source for birds.

Check out our Ivy: Summer Care Guide

Flowering	December
Exposure	Half Sun/Half Shade
Frost Tolerance	-23.5°C
Size	Outdoors
Soil	All types
Origin	Europe

€6,90

In stock

🪴9x9 cm

🚂 Ships across EU
🌱 Grown in our nursery

Can be used to make laundry detergent!

☀️ Afternoon shade or sheltered beneath a tree canopy will allow it to thrive — it is otherwise perfectly hardy and drought-resistant. Plant in Autumn for best resilience
⭐ Planting it alongside flowering perennials that tend to flop — Gaura / Echinacea / Phlox / Verbena — will allow the 'Erecta' to hold your composition for longer.
Can be used as a low hedge or border and requires little maintenance.
🫖 Looks very striking in a large container as a feature on a terrace or balcony.

'Erecta' has transitioned into its adult, arborescent form — a non-climbing, upright, shrubby ivy that stands independently without need of support.

It is a botanical curiosity as much as an ornamental one, occupying a space in the border that one might otherwise give to a compact evergreen shrub. In its juvenile context on the woodland floor it would have been a spreader.

In this fixed, matured form it is a study in composed self-sufficiency — and through this heatwave, utterly unruffled.

Ivies belong to the Araliaceae family, making them relatives of Ginseng and Fatsia.

Hedera helix is a family that naturally produces mutations, isolated by botanists or plant nursery owners and published in a recognized journal — the RHS yearly cultivar publication, for instance.

'Erecta' is a natural mutation of the botanical variety found in gardens and forests across the entire temperate Eurasian zone of the Northern Hemisphere.

Any and all varieties of 'Erecta' are cuttings of the original mutation, as cross-pollination is exceedingly difficult within the Hedera family. The experiments often result in the mutation reverting to its botanical base, losing all of its peculiar particularities.

Ivy is so interesting — I worked for a few years as watchful guardian and caretaker of the largest ivy collection in the world and have come to really love the family.