Last autumn I created a new heather bed in my garden with about a two dozen
small heathers planted 9" or so apart.

How I should I plan to maintain this over the coming year?

heathers...that is Ericas and Callunas.....naturally grow in very harsh environments and are able to flourish...when brought into a sheltered garden environment they re often less happy and what you need to do is this...

after the various kinds have flowered take each stem and cut back into the new little needle like leaves.......just below where the flower spike was...this should encourage them to remain bushy and not take on a pancake like appearance all bare in the middle.

they cant be pruned on old wood but do the above and ya should be alright.

note theres lots of Erica species but the Calluna is all varieties of C vulgaris.

hope this help.

"davout" wrote in message
...
Last autumn I created a new heather bed in my garden with about a two
dozen
small heathers planted 9" or so apart.

How I should I plan to maintain this over the coming year?

Pruning:

Summer flowering heathers - These should be lightly pruned in the first
half of March every year by cutting back, with a pair of sharp garden
shears, the old flower heads to a point just below the bottom flowers on
the stem.

Do not cut cut back into the old wood.

This pruning is followed by the production of vigorous shoots which will
provide flowers of a high quality in the summer.

Winter flowering heathers - The winter flowering kinds are cut back in
the same way immediately after flowering to a point below the bottom
flowers in late March or early April and again it is important that you
do not cut back into the old wood.

Best to give your plants a mulch with peat in spring after
the pruning has been done. The peat should be worked in between the
plants to form a layer on the surfce about half an inch deep.
Pulverised bark is an alternative mulching material.

The Heather Society http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/heather/ is a very
helpful and informative organization.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.

In article , Eyebright
writes

davout Wrote:
Last autumn I created a new heather bed in my garden with about a two
dozen
small heathers planted 9" or so apart.

How I should I plan to maintain this over the coming year?

heathers...that is Ericas and Callunas.....naturally grow in very harsh
environments and are able to flourish...when brought into a sheltered
garden environment they re often less happy and what you need to do is
this...

after the various kinds have flowered take each stem and cut back into
the new little needle like leaves.......just below where the flower
spike was...this should encourage them to remain bushy and not take on
a pancake like appearance all bare in the middle.

they cant be pruned on old wood but do the above and ya should be
alright.

note theres lots of Erica species but the Calluna is all varieties of C
vulgaris.

hope this help.


Hi

We have some large swathes of heathers of different kinds running along
a wall at the base of a hedge - it would take me about 6 weeks to
individually check and snip each flowering stalk - any advice about how
to cut 'less carefully' than that?

Lynda