Easy-to-grow heathers bring year-round color to gardens in almost any climate.
Learn how to choose, plant, and care for flowering heathers and heaths.
Although both belong to theEricaceaefamily, they are botanically different and are divided into theCallunagenus and theEricagenus.
Credit: Bill Stites
For practical purposes, however, they are nearly identical, sharing color, form, and growth habits.
Winter hardiness is the only major difference between species.
Their leaves are small and scalelike.
Credit: Dean Schoeppner
Most form low-growing mounds or spreading mats.
These low, mounding shrubs are the king of Scotland, the famous heather of the Highlands.
Why Plant Flowering Heathers and Heaths?
Credit: Jacob Fox
Of course, the real reason to plant heath or heather is the colorful bloom and foliage.
Imagine Monet’s palette loaded with hues of blue, yellow, gold, rose, and green.
Imagine a painting built from brush strokes of tall shrubs, lush mounds, and spreading mats.
Credit: Denny Schrock
Plant several varieties en masse on a slope, and an Impressionist’s landscape bursts into vivid life.
A heather’s evergreen foliage changes and intensifies in hue during cold weather.
It is this variability that makes heaths and heathers such arresting plants for the landscape.
Try painting some into your landscape this fall.
Plant heaths and heathers in open areas, up hillsides, or along pathways.
They pair especially well with dwarf conifers, which require similar acidic soil conditions.
(A 10-x-10-foot area would require 44 plants.)
How to Plant and Care for Flowering Heather
The growing conditions for these colorful plants are similar.
Karla Lortz of Heaths and Heathers Nursery offers these tips.
Prep the Soil
Heaths and heathers are acid lovers, preferring a soil pH of 4.5-5.5.
Work in damp peat moss or otheracidic soil amendments, particularlyif your soil is pH neutral(6.5-7.5).
Provide Drainage
Without good drainage, these plants just won’t grow.
For boggy soil (which may be the right pH but too wet), make a modest berm.
Planting Tips
Shear newly purchased plants to encourage bushiness, and plant in spring or early autumn.
Water twice a week for the first several months so the ground is moist but not soggy.
This will encourage rapid, vigorous growth to get plants established.
After two or three years, heathers and heaths are generallydrought-tolerantand can take care of themselves.
The foliage will be best on the south side of the plant, especially for red varieties.
Six or more hours of sun are also recommended with afternoon shade in hotter areas.
Too much shade makes the plants leggy and dulls the brilliance of those that have colorful foliage.
Orapply a winter mulchsuch as evergreen boughs.
In areas with deep snow cover, plants will be fine.
Don’t Fuss
Heaths and heathers actually like poor soil.
Giving annual doses of fertilizer is deadlier than not giving any at all.
Fertilize once withrhododendronfeed upon plantingthen leave your plants alone.
About the only work you oughta do is give them a yearly shearing.
can be lightly pruned to encourage bushiness.
Most species grow about 1 foot tall by 1 1/2 feet wide.
