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Fabiana imbricata 'Violacea' (Chilean Heather) - An upright fast-growing evergreen shrub that grows to 5 to 8 foot tall by nearly the same width and branches well from the base with young stems downy with fine hairs and clad in tightly held gray-green scalelike (tiny, pointed, three-angled) foliage. From late spring well into summer appear the tight clusters of lightly fragrant flared tip tubular ¾ inch long violet purple flowers along the stem tips.
Plant in full to part sun in a well-drained unamended soil and water occasionally to infrequently. This is a drought tolerant plant once established and it tolerant to moderate frosts, so useful in USDA zones 7a and above. Prune in later summer to fall after flowering to shape or reduce stature. This beautiful shrub is attractive to hummingbirds and other pollinators yet seems resistant to predation by deer and rabbits. It is also noted as being fire resistant.
Fabiana imbricata is native to dry upland slopes of the Andes in Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. The genus is named for Francisco Fabian y Fuero (1719-1801) a Spanish clergyman and horticulturist who later in life resided Mexico and was the Bishop of Puebla. The specific epithet refers to the tight imbricated foliage. The common name Chilean Heather is a bit of a misnomer as the plant is not in the Heather family, the Ericaceae, but is in the Nightshade family, the Solanaceae, but in a bit of convergent evolution with unrelated plants adapting to similar environmental conditions, this plant from Chile does very much resemble some Erica species from South Africa. For this reason, it is also called "False Heather" but in Chile it is called Pichi.
This violet form received the coveted Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 1993. We first grew the white flowering species from 1990 until 1993 from cuttings taken off a plant growing in the University of California Santa Barbara botanical collection (then managed by John Bleck) and were later given the 'Violacea' form by Dylan Hannon, now the curator of the conservatory at the Huntington Botanic Gardens and we grew it from 1992 until 1994. When we first "introduced" this plant we thought it new to cultivation but Fabiana imbricata was introduced into cultivation in England in 1838 and the 'Violacea' cultivar in 1854. In Liberty Hyde Baily's 1928 edition of The Standard Cyclopedia it was noted that “It is a rather common shrub in S. California where it blooms at different seasons." We discontinued growing these interesting plants only because they did not sell that well for us, and they also did not hold up as nice looking plants very long in nursery containers.
The information displayed on this page about Fabiana imbricata 'Violacea' is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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