Back Issue
September/October 2000

Growing Heaths and Heathers
by Judy Doyle

It was love at first sight. Shoppers at a crowded flower show were carrying out fat bunches of rich purple flowers nestled in paper. I tracked down the vendor and purchased my first heather. So pretty!

Later that spring, in a garden center, I came across small pots of heather with those same rich purple flower beads. The idea of growing my own was irresistible. The nurseryman took the time to caution me that the plant had been greenhouse grown and would need shelter from the wind. I was a novice gardener at the time, and wind protection was one of several concepts that had never occurred to me.

Many times, visitors to my perennial nursery have remarked, while admiring my heather, Oh, they’re so beautiful, but I killed mine. Well, my first heather planting died, too. In gardening, the rallying cry is try, try again! By taking a bit of care with planting, success came, and I added a few new varieties each year. Only one or two have succumbed. (The cause of death: moles. The creatures tunneled under the plant, leaving the roots suspended in an underground cave, where of course they withered and died. The voles and mice which use the tunnels could also have delivered the coup de grace.) Many of my heathers are 10 years old, and specimens of 80 years exist on the Cape and elsewhere.

The term heather is used, even by the North American Heather Society, as inclusive of both heath (Erica) and heather (Calluna). There are more similarities than differences in the two species, but most gardeners are content to divide them into two camps: the winter bloomers are mostly heaths (Erica) and the spring through fall bloomers are heather (Calluna).

Here in Connecticut, it is possible to have heather in flower every month of the year, even under snow. Erica darleyensis ‘Furzey’ has dark green foliage with pink tips; when fully grown it is about 15 x 24 inches, and the rosy pink flowers bloom from November through May. You would do well to plant this one near your main entry, where it would be easy to remove deep snow and passersby can marvel at the sight of (real, not plastic) flowers in the dead of winter. Sprigs of ‘Furzey’ are also charming indoors, in a little mug near your sink or wrapped with a bit of ribbon and used as a curtain tieback. Year round, I use branches of heather to make wreaths and fill baskets. Heather blossoms have a subtle fragrance and can be used in potpourris and scented pillows.

Where to Plant
Heathers are perfect for my front yard. The soil there is so poor it hardly supports a dandelion. The lawn is a joke. The last tongue of the glacier reached here on a very hot day. Dig a planting hole one hour after it has rained, and you get a fine, silty powder and rocks. What do heathers like? Good drainage is essential. Check. Acid soil. Check. The whole country sends their acid rain here. A lean diet. Check. A sunny spot. How lucky to have all these conditions right here!

I have planted heathers in the perennial borders. ‘Springwood White’ forms the corner of one bed, its branches extending gracefully across the stone edging, with blue Jacob’s-ladder behind it. Two gardens slope down to the lawn; there I’ve built rough stone terraces where the heathers can securely descend the slope, showing themselves off while their matting roots secure the soil beneath them. On one slope I have interplanted German iris and white coneflowers, daylilies and Centaurea macrocephala. Tulips provide a spiky contrast in the spring. This slope is in direct view of a downstairs bedroom and has a nice appearance year round.

There are now about 70 varieties growing in our zone 5-6 northeast Connecticut garden, flowering in that plush purple, but also in pink, white, mauve and crimson.

My heather plantings have been so successful that I am encouraged to expand beyond the pampered perennial beds, and finally establish an attractive landscape between the house and the road. There will be a curve of heather and heath along the drive, blending tufts, mounds, carpets and shrubs in a soft tapestry of grey, gold, green, orange, red, purple and chocolate brown. Accents of ornamental grasses and dwarf conifers will give contrasting texture and form. A fully grown bed of several varieties of Calluna and Erica gives the beautiful effect of a watercolor quilt or an antique oriental rug, with soft browns, greys, smudges of rust, greens, and beiges. Who could ever again be content with a landscape of just juniper and yews?

When & How to Plant
I plant my heathers in spring and fall, but I prefer September for several reasons. Connecticut’s early fall weather is usually soft and comfortable. The new little plants can get their roots established before the warmth leaves the soil, and I can find time to fuss a little about the babies, getting them off to a healthy start. Recent research at the University of Maine has indicated that fall plantings of heather actually rate highest in hardiness. Heather adapts well to austere conditions, such as the moors of Scotland and our sometimes hellish Connecticut winters, but as with children, give them the very best start possible.

I dig a $20 hole for a $10 plant, and work into it a fair amount of moistened, aged compost, or rotted oak leaves, pine needles, peat moss, or a combination of these amendments. The oak and pine grow on our property and provide the acid that heather likes. I give new plantings a drink of fish emulsion fertilizer, which acts as a shock absorber. Sometimes I work in a small handful of Epsom salts, which is a booster I use for all perennials and shrubs. It is supposed to make the soil nutrients more readily available to the plant.

If the heather’s soil ball is dry and massed with roots, slice it vertically and take a little off the bottom, gently teasing the roots apart. This will spur the roots into new growth. When the heather is settled into the hole, and the soil is firmed down, shape a little moat around it, where water will be directed right down to those roots. Heather roots are very fine and will die if allowed to dry out at all during the first season of growth.

The novice heather grower should be aware that heather’s tolerance of drought and need for good drainage does not preclude the importance of keeping the newly planted roots moist at all times. Until they are established, the cause of plant loss is almost aways a drying out of the root mass. As a source of warmth I like to position a rock on the windward side of the new plant.

Care After Planting
Perennials die back to their roots in winter, but heather remains evergreen and drying winter winds can severely injure or kill young growth.

Your heathers will need some winter protection. Reliable snow cover throughout the winter is the best protection. But this hasn’t happened for several years, so you must provide it. Our oak trees strew plenty of leaves in among the plants; straw and pine needles are also good insulators. These light and airy materials protect the plants from the wind and cold while allowing air to circulate throughout the foliage, deterring rot and fungus disease.

Late in the year, when gathering pine boughs and hemlock branches for holiday decorating, I cut extra for the heathers. I arrange the branches on the west side of the planting to shield them from the wind, poking the cut ends into the soil and further securing them with stones.

Whatever you have used for wind cover should be removed from the tops and sides of the plants starting around mid March. Do this gradually so that the plants can adjust to the unsettled weather.

Mid March is also the time to prune off the old blossoms and any winter-injured branches. I have gotten carried away and pruned so hard that I thought the plant had been killed. It was one of my oldest heathers and a real beauty (cv. ‘Barnett Anley’). I felt sick about it until, thankfully, it flushed out with more healthy flowers than ever.

As for fertilizing, the most I have done for my heathers is to give them one or two generous drinks of diluted fish emulsion at planting time, and another drink in the first spring after planting. This has been enough; their color is healthy and vibrant.

The Northeast Heather Society’s newsletter is packed with growing suggestions from members. As a group, they seem to do very little fertilization. However, some growers do recommend light applications of a granular azalea-rhodie type fertilizer (i.e., acid) in early spring.

Established plantings are drought resistant and get along just fine without coddling.

Here in Brooklyn, Connecticut I don’t have a problem with deer. But if you do, protect your newly planted heathers by bending some chicken wire over them to keep the deer from nibbling and pulling the plants out of the ground. Once the heather plants are established, the nibbling may not be that harmful.

Buying Heathers
Beware of the tempting offerings of supermarkets and megastores from time to time. Most likely these are the very tender South African heathers, although they may be mislabeled Scotch heather. Enjoy them as a potted plant and bring them in for the winter.

Buy your outdoor heather plants from a reliable nursery or garden center. Thanks to print features, the public’s awareness is increasing and more plants are becoming available in Connecticut nurseries. Beginning heather enthusiasts will find a wealth of information in the NEHS newsletter.

It was the purple flowers of heather that first drew my admiration. But even if this subshrub never flowered, its colorful foliage keeps it at the top of my list of must-have plantings. I grow and sell hundreds of varieties of perennials in my little garden nursery, but we have come to regard heather as the most versatile, dependable, and everlastingly beautiful plantings on the property. When the delphiniums fall over, the achillea browns, and the hosta becomes mush, my heathers shimmer and glow.

Judy Doyle is the incoming president of the Northeast Heather Society and the owner of My Neighbor’s Garden Perennial and Herb Nursery in Brooklyn, CT. She has been growing heathers for 10 years.

Heath and Heather Favorites
In the early 90s, Joyce Descloux, a garden writer, polled the membership of the Northeast Heather Society, asking for their favorites. The resulting list of 20 includes both Erica and Calluna, and, as long as basic culture practices are followed, all are easy to grow and hardy, even up to zones 3 and 4.
Some of the top 20 you may find locally are:
Calluna ‘H.E. Beale’, 30 x 24 inches, double shell pink flowers August-October, foliage is silvery green, upright.
Calluna ‘Robert Chapman’, 10 x 30 inches, mauve flowers July-September, foliage is gold to reddish and spreading.
Calluna ‘Cuprea’, 12 x16 inches, lilac flowers August-September, foliage is chartreuse to coppery, upright.
Erica carnea ‘Springwood Pink’, 8 x 20 inches, pink flowers January-May, foliage has bronze tips in spring.
Erica vagans ‘Mrs. D.F. Maxwell’, 18 x 20 inches, cherry blossoms July-September, foliage dark green and bushy.
Erica tetralix ‘Alba Mollis’, 8 x 12 inches, white flowers June-September, foliage is grey-green and bushy upright.

Connecticut Gardener
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