On Wed, 18 Jun 2014 18:15:01 +0100, Another John wrote:

I do the garden for an elderly neighbour. She has a large patch of
heather which put on a jolly good show this year. However now the
flowers have died: what do I do with them? Should I just trim the
bushes by a few inches, or what? All the bushes in this rather old
heather patch are pretty old and unkempt.

Cheers John

The traditional way of regenerating heather is to burn it.