Content
- The winter heather as a gap filler in the balcony box
- It depends on the selection of the right plants
- Maintain the winter heather in the balcony box properly
- With a mixed planting all year round for Heide look
- Tips
The winter heather cuts a good figure even in the cold and cold in the balcony box
The winter heather as a gap filler in the balcony box
Due to the very limited frost resistance of most balcony flowers cultivated in this country, many window boxes are "cleared" in autumn and replanted only in spring. It could provide some copies of winter heather even during the cold months of the year for different-colored flowers on the balcony.
It depends on the selection of the right plants
When choosing suitable plants, you should pay close attention to the labeling in the specialized trade or clearly assign the plants themselves to either the heather or the winter heather. The former grows in boggy heathland in relatively mild locations and blooms in midsummer. It is only hardy and hardy depending on the species and needs a rather acidic plant substrate like peat. The winter heather, on the other hand, comes from mountainous regions of central and southern Europe, where in the summer the plants have a rather inconspicuous existence in gravelly riverbeds or in sparse forests. The snow heath flowers usually between February and April, some varieties even weather dependent even earlier. You also have the following features:
Maintain the winter heather in the balcony box properly
Basically, the culture in the balcony box or in another planter in the snow heath is not fundamentally different from the planting as a ground cover or bedding enclosure directly in the garden floor. An important care measure is the pruning directly after flowering in spring, which stimulates the regular rejuvenation of the plants. Thus, bald spots are prevented and it comes to the fall in each case to a strong new formation of the flower buds for the following year. However, plants in the balcony box are more exposed to the weather than plants in the garden bed. Thus, under certain circumstances, the actually hardy varieties of the snow heath can come under extreme frosts without winter protection in distress. Even more important for winter damage to the snow heath but the drying of the soil, which should be prevented by sparing watering on frost-free days.
With a mixed planting all year round for Heide look
If you like the typical appearance of the stocky heath plants, then you can easily provide the appropriate look in the balcony box all year round. Just mix specimens of heather and winter heather so you can enjoy two flowering phases a year. You can solve the problem of the different requirements on the soil by inserting the individual plants together with sufficiently large plant pots (with the potted soil in each case) into the balcony boxes.
Tips
In order to avoid plant losses in a mixture of heather and snow heath in the balcony box, the less hardy heather plants should be covered in winter with protective foliage or brushwood. In addition, you should not plant the individual plants as close as possible to each other.