Undemanding heather, planting and plant care

Common heather belongs to the monotypic genus of flowering plants. Heather, planting and caring for which when grown in a garden area is not difficult even for novice growers, is an unusually hardy shrub.

Wild heather fields look like real thickets, which are called heather wastelands (heathers). It grows in the European part of the country, as well as in Eastern and Western Siberia. Heather can be found in many regions of our planet with a cool climate - in the Baltic States, England, Sweden, Greenland, as well as in the northern part of the United States and even in Morocco.

This sun-loving plant is rather unpretentious and, apparently, therefore, prefers a variety of soils. It is suitable for open areas of sphagnum bogs and peat bogs, tundra woodlands, burnt-out forests, mountain slopes, light coniferous forests, deciduous or places with little shade.

Heather is listed in the Red Book of Moscow, some regions and regions of the Russian Federation.

Description of the plant

Common heather (Calluna vulgaris) is a small evergreen perennial bush without a main trunk. All shoots are lignified and erect, strongly branching, with small triangular leaves without petioles, located in four rows.

Inflorescences - brushes up to 25 cm. With white flowers from 5 to 30 pieces, less often pink, red and even purple, up to 1 cm in size, with an actinomorphic perianth and four petals. In autumn, fruits appear - dry brown boxes. Heather is an oligotroph, therefore it can inhabit even the most scarce soils with a low content of nutrients. Winter-hardy. A wonderful honey plant. Propagated by seeds.

The plant is xerophytic and adapted to life in arid regions. The possibility of its dwelling on wet soils becomes real thanks to evaporation and accompanying cooling. This phenomenon is called "physiological dryness", in which the plant draws more water from the cold, saturated soil and more water than from dry soil.

Heather grows in symbiosis with the simplest mushrooms that form mycorrhiza... With the help of hyphae, mycelium filaments can extract food even on the poorest soils. Therefore, if you try to bring it home from the forest, you need to save the root ball.

The lifespan of heather is 30 years or more. Annual growth from 1.5 to 2 cm per year. Blooms profusely for two months - in July and August. Flowering begins at 5–7 years.

Aerial germination is typical for heather seeds. During the first year, a small shoot grows with leaves that grow more crowded at the top. Many young heathers can be seen in open sandy areas close to fruiting plants.

Under natural conditions, in aging plants, the main stem and lateral branches begin to gradually lay down and take root. Since the length of each of them is at least one meter, a curtain is formed near the shrub, the diameter of which can be up to three meters. As soon as enough adventitious roots appear on the lying trunks, they become brittle. Breaking, the stems are separated from the mother bush and further grow as independent plants.

Common heather, planting and care at home

This hardy plant can be propagated independently, not only by seeds or dividing the bush, but also by cuttings.In an apartment, heather is planted at any time, regardless of the season, since the temperature regime for it will always be optimal. For the best germination of seeds, the air temperature should be constantly maintained from + 18 ° C to + 22 ° C.

Stages of work when planting heather:

1. Soil preparation. Sand, coniferous and peat soil are poured into a large container in a ratio of 1: 1: 2. Mix well and pour into pots. You can also use a special soil for flower plants.
2. In pots, the soil must be moistened, then the seeds must be planted, they do not need to be buried. Until the first shoots appear, and this may take up to 28 days, the container should be covered with transparent glass.
3. When the sprouts grow up, they need to be left outdoors for several hours a day. Moreover, for hardening, it is necessary to gradually increase the time spent outdoors and avoid exposure to sunlight.
4. The grown seedlings are planted in separate containers at the age of 8-10 months.

For the early germination of seeds, the soil should be well moistened in the first week. And then it is enough just to spray.

For the heather to bloom a little earlier, it needs to be grown from cuttings. This is best done at the end of the summer season or at the very beginning of autumn. The soil is prepared from sand and peat... They must be taken in equal amounts and mixed thoroughly and moistened. Top dressing is not required. And then the cutting is placed in the container.

The optimum temperature for rooting is from + 15 ° C to + 22 ° C, the humidity should be normal.

Gardeners propagate heather by dividing the bush, since this method is simple and reliable, it allows you to quickly achieve the desired result. All manipulations are performed only on those plants that have already faded. They just take out a heather bush from the container in which it grew and divide it into two parts. The resulting bushes are planted in new pots, in which new soil and a little fertilizer were previously added. Watering.

Beautiful heather -

planting and grooming must be correct

Even when grown at home, heather is still an unpretentious and fairly hardy plant.

But still, you need to take care of him, like other plants:

• monitor the moisture content of the soil and regularly water with water at room temperature, do not allow it to dry out;
• in the room, the heather should not be placed in direct sunlight.
• to defend water for irrigation for at least 2 weeks (in areas with strong chlorination);
• in summer, the air temperature should not exceed + 25 ° С, in winter - should not fall below + 8 ° С;
• feed during the flowering of the plant, no more than 50 g per sq. meter, deacidify the soil with sulfur or add the bark of conifers;
• spray the plants daily.

When replanting annually, the root feed must be preserved. When planting and caring for heather, the soil needs mulch, and not to loosen, since the heather's root system is located in the upper layers of the soil.

Garden pests are not afraid of heather, but sometimes late blight affects its bushes. The development of the disease leads to graying of its leaves. The branches begin to droop, and then the plant may die. A plant that grows at home is susceptible to aphid infestation, and in some cases, spider mites.

Also, the difficulties of growing can be caused by the following diseases:

• viral diseases - it is impossible to reanimate them, damaged plants must be burned;
• powdery mildew - the appearance of whitish and brown spots can be stopped with the drug "Fundazol";
• gray rot - the dying off of leaves and white growths on the branches will be cured by the preparations Topaz and Fundazol, as well as spraying with a non-concentrated solution of copper sulfate;
• rust - red spots are eliminated by Topaz.

You can get rid of aphids on plants with the help of Inta-Vira and Decis preparations.The fight against spider mites is carried out using the systemic insecticide "Aktaru" and insectoacaricide "Aktellik".

Pruning heather

Heather crops need to be pruned periodically to maintain their decorative appearance.

Forming pruning is carried out once a year after the heather has faded and all the flowers have dried:

• pruning preserves the splendor of the plant;
• stimulates active flowering next year;
• delays aging.

Cut the heather along the green part of the branches, in that part where the leaves grow. Cardinal pruning to wood level will prevent the plant from sprouting, which will cause its death.

Heather in the garden

All over the world, heather is often used to decorate verandas and terraces, as well as in landscape design. Gardeners love it for its original colors, various shapes and sizes, and a long flowering period.

The variegated varieties of heathers suit many garden designs. They are planted in separate groups or combined with other plants, flowers and even stones. They are often chosen for those parts of the garden in which it is necessary to plant ground cover plants, their beauty becomes brighter when, with the onset of cold weather, the leaves acquire yellow or purple hues.

Heather grows well with light shade from nearby trees. It is often planted on alpine hills, in rockeries and small gravel gardens, where water does not stagnate and a lot of snow does not accumulate, and a layer of gravel, instead of mulch, protects the roots of the plant from drying out.

In open ground, the plant is planted at the age of 1.5 to 2 years. The depth of the planting pit is usually 25–35 cm. The root collar is not buried.

They are located in two ways:

1. In a group, with a distance of 30–40 cm between seedlings, or from 6 to 8 vigorously growing specimens.
2. 12-15 pieces of weakly growing varieties, which are placed on one square meter.

Drainage must be placed in the pits - a ten-centimeter layer of sand and small pieces of brick. When planting and caring for heather, it is recommended to add fertilizer to the soil. For low-growing varieties - 30 g of horny flour and 20 g of nitrophoska. For the strong-growing - 50 g of horny flour and 30 g of nitrophoska.

When buying seedlings for the garden, you need to pay attention to their condition:

• elasticity of shoots, their foliage;
• the presence of young shoots and vegetative buds, lighter than the rest;
• the soil in the container should be only slightly moist;
• the root ball should fit snugly against the walls of the container, then the roots will not be dry.

The best time to plant heather seedlings in open ground is from mid-April to early May. But you can plant them at the end of September, the main thing is that they have time to take root.

Decorative varieties of heather in the garden landscape

Intensive work on the development of new varieties of heather has been going on since the end of the 18th century. During this time, more than 500 different varieties have been created, delighting everyone who likes their unassuming beauty. With proper care of these plants, you can create real flower carpets in your garden. This allows you to show the beauty of foliage and flowers of different colors.

Single plants are not so spectacular, therefore they are planted in groups, and they are combined not only in terms of flowering time, but also in size. If it is necessary to fill a large flower garden or meadow with plants, first they begin to plant bushes along the contour, and then, moving towards the center, evenly distribute the remaining seedlings.

One of the best options for decorating a site is laying an ericaria or heather garden. Not only different varieties of heathers will come in handy, but also erika. They bloom at different times and allow the garden to always look original. They are planted with any varieties of heathers, including wild ones. As a rule, planting is combined with low conifers, which have the same requirements for lighting, soil composition and moisture content.

On the site for heather, a sunny or semi-shady place is allocated, next to the walls of houses or outbuildings, as well as not far from garden arbors, partitions, along stone or gravel paths. One of the most suitable forms for ericaria is considered to be elongated, arbitrary, slightly wavy. A small heather garden is best made round. The soil should be acidic or slightly acidic, dry. If it contains a lot of clay, you need to arrange drainage. It is best to choose winter-hardy varieties for central Russia. And it is necessary to eat, before the onset of the winter planting season, it is better to cover it.

The location of ericaria with ephedra often allows you to view it only from one side. For example, it can be near a fence or fence. The compositional solution, in this case, should be simple. The tallest conifers are planted in the background, and as they approach the viewing area, more and more undersized plants are planted - heathers, dwarf conifers and eriks.

Heather varieties with white flowers

White heather flowers always attract attention. Wonderful plant varieties will find their rightful place in any summer cottage.

Alba

This evergreen, compact shrub with vertical branches grows rather slowly. But it grows up to half a meter. It has small light green leaves and white double flowers in vertical inflorescences, the length of which reaches 20 cm. It blooms in August. The main roots are deep and occupy a large area, there are also many thin, not so long roots. This variety is planted in sunny areas, but it can grow in light partial shade. For plants, you need to prepare moderately fertile soil, peaty or marshy, acidic. The variety is drought-resistant, but damaged by late frosts, after which, in March or April, pruning is carried out.

Alicia

The variety belongs to the "Garden girls" series. Gardeners call it “bud heathers”. Until the very frost, the flowers of plants look like unopened buds. Therefore, even in bad weather, they are always magnificent. This undersized dwarf shrub, whose height barely reaches 30 cm, has a lot of buds, white and large. The bush grows slowly. All shoots with bright green leaves are directed upwards. It begins to bloom late, the first buds appear not earlier than September. The land around the heather needs to be mulched. Used as a ground cover plant. Looks great on alpine slides. It hibernates under a cover of spruce branches or dry leaves.

Heather varieties with double flowers

Varieties with double flowers are perfectly combined with other plants at their summer cottage.

Sonya

A low plant, the shoots of which do not exceed 20 cm. Are covered with dark green scaly leaves. Densely double flowers lilac-pink, very delicate shade. Blooms from early August to September. Placed in sunlit areas. Suitable for alpine slides. The bushes of this variety are often combined with dwarf conifers and ferns.

Red Favorite

Many gardeners find this variety the most attractive of all heathers. The height of the bush is no more than 20 cm. But this is a wide spreading evergreen plant, up to 70 cm. The flowers are double, dark pink in color. It blooms profusely and looks pretty impressive. The inflorescences are hanging. Can be planted in containers, alpine slides.

Heather varieties with golden foliage

When at least one bush with golden foliage grows among the lush greenery. it is impossible to look away from him.

Red Carpet

The variety is yellow-leaved and one of the fastest growing. The bush is wide, with creeping branches, about 20 cm high. Flowers of a violet-pink hue appear in September. Golden leaves turn bright orange in autumn. Needs mulching. Prefers acidic, moist soil with good drainage. Grows in open ground along with ferns and rhododendrons.

Vicuor Flame

Sprawling shrub, the height of which reaches 30 cm.The color of the leaves varies with the season. Golden yellow leaves, by the winter period turn into orange-red. On short inflorescences there are many lilac-pink, lavender-tinged flowers. It is used in gardens as a ground cover plant, as well as for landscaping.

Heathers with dark green foliage

When creating a landscape design for your site, be sure to pay attention to varieties with dark green foliage.

Alba Precox

Evergreen shrub with upward shoots. Can grow up to 35 cm, but growth is very slow. The leaves are bright green, but begin to darken with the onset of summer. It begins to bloom in July. Small white flowers look like bells. For the winter, cover with peat or a layer of dry leaves.

Heidesinfoni

The height of the bush is 40 cm. Delicate, pink flowers go well with rich green foliage. Flowering time is from August to September. It tolerates frosts down to -23 ° C. It hibernates under shelters made of spruce branches or peat.

Decorative heathers with silvery leaves

Pour a drop of silver into the vibrant green of your area. We decorate the plot using silvery heather. Planting and caring for the variety is not too difficult.

Silver night

Bushes with a cushion-shaped crown, about 45 cm in diameter.The silvery-gray shade of the leaves becomes burgundy by winter. Simple small flowers of lilac or light purple color are collected in long inflorescences.

Grisabella

A very beautiful variety with spectacular silvery foliage. The flowers are simple, purple-pink. Blooms from July to September. The height of the sprawling bush is not more than 30 cm, but it is quite spreading. It can withstand cold snaps down to -23 ° C. Shelter is required.

Heathers with bud-shaped flowers

These wonderful varieties of heather do not seem to want to show their lush bloom. But this is their feature.

Athena

Belongs to the “Garden girls” series, therefore, even during cold snaps, the flowers have the shape of a bud. Due to this, the plants retain their excellent appearance for a long time. It grows slowly, reaching a height of 30 cm. There are many red flowers-buds on the upward-stretched shoots. It begins to bloom no earlier than September. Casting green in spring, later acquire a bronze tint.

Amethyst

It is a variety of the "Garden girls" series. The height of the evergreen shrub is 25–30 cm. It is characterized by slow growth. Shoots are vertical. Flowers in the form of buds have a purple-crimson hue, effectively combined with dark green leaves. Mulching is required. Shelter is required for the winter. Transfer frosts down to -29 ° C.

Stunning heather shrub, planting and care - video