Last spring I wrote a post concerning widespread winter kill of heaths and heathers in the northeast. I lost only two of my nine plants, but a lot of peoples' collections were devastated by the unusually severe deep freezes and alternating thaws. Many people whose plants made it through the winter relatively intact reported that they'd protected them with pine boughs and the like.

This year I'm going to recycle my Christmas tree by using its branches to cover my heath and heather bed. I haven't ordered any new plants yet, in part because I want to see how the ones I've got make it through this winter. But I hope to expand the bed in the spring.

I really enjoy growing these plants; they have so many wonderful qualities. They're wonderful for their design possibilities, they are beautiful both when flowering and not, and they're exotic in terms of their geographical origins and in terms of their botanical characteristics.

I hate to see all those browning Christmas trees on the sidewalks awaiting pick-up after the holidays. The rational part of my brain makes me feel silly about anthropomorphizing a dying tree, but seeing them still makes me a bit sad. (Does anyone remember the spindly little tree adopted by Charlie Brown and his gang?) In any case, I'm a dedicated composter, and a conscientious recycler of all the glass, metal and paper waste that my household generates. I'm lucky that my city has a really good recycling system in place. In fact, while my tree will be shielding my heaths and heathers from the wind and ice, all those other trees will go into the city compost that I and others will be digging into to fill our buckets and bins in the spring.

Anyway, if you are concerned about winter kill and you also happen to have a post-holiday Christmas tree around, you can put it to good use in protecting your plants.

cranebill