Content
- The winter heather - perennial and permanently beautiful?
- Bring the snow heath well through the winter
- With a trick, the winter heather forms numerous flowers in the following year
- The winter heather as winter ornament in the balcony box
- Tips
The winter heather usually thrives easily perennial
The winter heather - perennial and permanently beautiful?
Many heather plants are offered in the garden trade potted and used as some other flowering plants only seasonally as a splash of color on graves or in the balcony box. Especially the snow heath or winter heather (Erica carnea) is very hardy and can be cultivated with some care as a perennial shrub in the garden.
Bring the snow heath well through the winter
Although the snow heath can cope well with very frosty temperatures due to its subalpine to alpine origin, dangers can lurk even in winter. The worst part of this is usually winter dryness due to bald frosts. You should therefore take care when planting the winter heather in spring that the plants are placed in a substrate with good storage capacity for water. In addition, the plants should also be watered in winter, if frost-free days or the switching of the balcony boxes in a frost-free location allow this. Make sure that you do not pour over the winter heather with it (it does not like that even in the summer), but moisten the soil around the roots as evenly as possible. Even a layer of foliage and fine brushwood can protect the soil around the winter heather from dehydration in winter.
With a trick, the winter heather forms numerous flowers in the following year
For many garden owners, the winter heather comes without demanding care through the winter, but then ensures in the next garden season for perplexed faces. This is because the plant either forms very few flowers or tends to disguise. This problem can easily counteract this problem with a little care by using the plants:
The best time for pruning is right after flowering in spring. This stimulates the formation of new flower buds in good time and thus lays the foundation for a magnificent flowering in the next winter. Rejuvenating pruning also promotes a compact habit, preventing cropping of plants.
The winter heather as winter ornament in the balcony box
The winter heather is one of the few plants with which the balcony can be embellished even in winter with the ornament of real flowers. However, even the winter-hardy snow heath does not necessarily tolerate it optimally if it is only transplanted into the window boxes in the dead of winter. It may therefore make sense to have a second set of window boxes in which the winter heather then moves with the exchange in the spring to a sunny or partially shady spot in the garden.
Tips
If you cultivate the winter heather in the balcony box for several years, you should regularly provide fresh soil and sufficient nutrients in the window boxes. In addition, plants dry out in the balcony box lighter than in the field, which is why the irrigation of the snow heath during the optically unspectacular summer months should not be forgotten.