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so...are they dead?
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Posted by jennahw 7 - MD (My Page) on Sat, Mar 29, 08 at 22:03
| See pics. I got these on super-clearance last summer, and they were mostly brown but each had about 1/3 green foliage around the center. No tags, so I don't know specifics (I actually thought they were juniper). Asked around and was told to leave on the dead bits over the winter, so I did that and covered them up pretty well with dead leaves. They turned a nice red over winter. I trimmed them some when it got warmer (not too harshly, so there is still some brown), but they don't seem to want to bloom. They are still green/red.
I got 2 more heath/heathers that are in lovely bloom since we decided to expand the garden - do my clearance ones just need a year to recover before blooming? should I trim them waaaay back? They are in a well-drained (sloped) location, but I will admit they may not be planted quite as deep as they should be, because when they were planted in the fall the ground was ROCK hard.
so...are they dead and I need to replace 'em, or do they just need some pruning and recovery time?
PICS:
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: so...are they dead?
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| The one in the lower photo is a Calluna vulgaris, a true heather and they don't bloom until summer. It is not dead. The really dried dead stuff won't come back and can be removed but the red/yellow growth is normal winter coloring for many heathers. Some have new growth that color too. Heathers should not be planted deeply so no problem there. a light mulch would be helpful. |
RE: so...are they dead?
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| Thanks! I'll do some trimming then. I wonder if the new ones I got are a totally different variety then...I figured they were the same since Lowe's usually carries the same type of that stuff year to year. Wiill the blooms on the 2 new ones stay? Otherwise I guess they'll just bloom at different times. Oh well. I am planning to get some sort of ground cover to plant in between them, and hopefully it will also overtake the top of the hill - hard area to plant...any thoughts on something that'd make a good pairing? |
RE: so...are they dead?
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| I can't tell from the photo if the blooming ones are heaths or heathers so can't tell you about their bloom cycle. They look totally different from the other photo though. |
RE: so...are they dead?
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| don't have a closeup of mine (the ones in bloom now), but they look like this: http://www.nzplantpics.com/pics_shrubs/heather_plant_flowers.jpg
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Plants/flower-Heather-Pink.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Plants/flower-Heather-Pink.html&h=405&w=600&sz=120&hl=en&start=2&sig2=bvgX3m1kpEfgBgqlP0niVw&um=1&tbnid=z4kesS8YFTzqHM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=135&ei=vVcNSI-xLo_aecC73fIN&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dheather%2Bplant%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG I am pretty sure they are Heather. Any thoughts on possibly planting ivy between them? I may not go with ivy - concerned that it's a little too much of a pain to control. |
RE: so...are they dead?
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| I would not plant ivy between them. It can swamp them. It can also escape into any natural areas. It is a noxious weed in many areas. I'm having trouble with blue star creeper that I planted between mine as well. It is very aggressive. |
RE: so...are they dead?
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| i was worried about that. I've decided to go with blue rug juniper between them on the more hilly part, then I've ordered some evergreen vinca from Springhill Nurseries to plant between the others. if I remember, I'll post pictures when the vinca comes in and everything is planed. also, I haven't pruned the heathers any more. problem with the brown spots is that all the green pieces are at the end of ones that start out brown. if i cut off all the brown at the bottom, there won't be any green left at all... |
RE: so...are they dead?
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| Hi. I planted calluna vulgaris a couple of years ago in a rock garden on a hill in my yard (acidic soil). The heather gets at least 4 hours of full sun in summer late AM early PM, with motled shade the rest of the day. One heather comes back green after winter. The other two look dead--all rusty brown, no green in middle, but some at the ends. I was thinking I should pull the plants out because I thought they were dead. Are they supposed to look dead after winter? It takes a long time for them to get some green on them--nearly end of June. What am I doing wrong? |
Brown Calluna Vulgaris--Dead?
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| Hi. I planted calluna vulgaris a couple of years ago in a rock garden on a hill in my yard (acidic soil). The heather gets at least 4 hours of full sun in summer late AM early PM, with motled shade the rest of the day. One heather comes back green after winter. The other two look dead--all rusty brown, no green in middle, but some at the ends. I was thinking I should pull the plants out because I thought they were dead. Are they supposed to look dead after winter? It takes a long time for them to get some green on them--nearly end of June. What am I doing wrong? |
RE: so...are they dead?
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| No sure if it helps you, but as the originator of this post (it really is weird when you get an email from GardenWeb a year after a post! ha!), I can tell you that if my heathers pictured at the beginning of this thread are NOT dead, then that's too bad because they're being pulled up this year. They do have some green and there was some sparse blooming last year, but they look pretty awful. They probably would eventually recover, but it'd take them a long time. The other heathers, one ones that are white flowered in that first pic, are still doing quite well (even after being moved - my garden doesn't look like that any more! And incidentally, the vinca and juniper mentioned above are doing quite well also!). They flowered again and kept their blooms all winter. So I'll say that your prob aren't dead, but they also won't be pretty. |
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