If you treat it right, heather makes a fabulous ground cover. 

Look around your neighborhood this time of year and you just can’t miss the large swaths of pinks, purples and white that seem to cover the ground like a carpet.  What you are looking at is heather, or more specifically winter heather.  It has actually been blooming since October but in late March it really becomes a standout in the garden.

In fact, winter heathers will often bloom from September to May.  That’s nine months of color, something that you don’t often find in the plant world.

Heathers typically fall into two categories, winter blooming heather and summer blooming heather.  With a little planning, you can actually have some kind of heather blooming in your yard every day of the year.  Heathers are evergreen plants that are related to our rhodies and azaleas and hence grow in similar conditions.  The flower colors range from white to pink and into various shades of purple.  There are choices on foliage color as well, from shades of green to gray and from yellow to orange to red.  As a whole, heathers are fine textured low growing plants that rarely exceed 24 inches in height.

Heathers should be planted in full sun for best performance, although they can tolerate partial shade.  Too much shade will cause them to get leggy and not bloom.  They need well-drained soil that is slightly acid.  That means that for most of us we will need to add some compost to the soil to improve drainage.  Since our soils are naturally acidic, there is no need to worry about that part.  Heathers don’t like “wet feet”, so be sure you pay attention to the drainage.

The root system of heathers (and evergreen azaleas as well) is very fine and fibrous and a challenge to loosen-up at planting time.  It is critical that you take a knife and slice down the sides of the root ball or use a cultivating fork to vigorously tease the roots loose from this tight matrix.  If you don’t do this you will greatly increase your losses.  Using an organic rhodie fertilizer is also helpful in getting them established.  And here is a little trade secret.  Plant them with an inch of the root ball above the grade.  This will get more air to the roots and improve your success rate.

Once heathers are growing they will need some seasonal maintenance.  It is imperative that you give them a haircut just after they finish blooming, probably April or May for the winter blooming varieties. This accomplishes two things.  First, it removes the unsightly old flowers and second it keeps the plants tight and bushy.  Heathers that haven’t been pruned for several years can look out of control.  And if they get too woody then you usually have to jerk them out and start over.  So a little seasonal pruning is the best way to keep heather looking great for years to come.

I usually think of heathers as being ground covers.  They are effective when planted “en masse” and allowed to grow together to form a solid mat of foliage.  But they are also equally useful when planted individually in rockeries, edgings or even in containers.  Their fine texture allows them to blend in well with adjacent plants and of course their long blooming seasons is an added bonus.  Except for large plantings, I would recommend planting them in drifts of no less then 3-5 plants of the same variety.  Several different drifts throughout the yard will give you year around interest without taking up a lot of space. 

This time of year nurseries are well stocked with winter blooming varieties and some of the summer varieties that have outstanding winter foliage.  There are literally hundreds of varieties to choose from.  I think they all blend together well but don’t try to plant one of every variety you like or it will look like a nursery instead of a garden.

So remember, if you plant your heather properly and shear it annually it will reward you with years of colorful blooms and tidy growth.  If you don’t then it will look like heck in no time flat and you will be pulling it out and replacing it with something else that may or may not be any better! 

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, a retail garden center that is celebrating their 60^th anniversary. You can ask him your gardening questions by calling the nursery at 425-334-2002 or email at sunnysidenursery@msn.com