Heather - a plant of delicate beauty

Heather plant of delicate beauty, is a shrub with scaly narrow tetrahedral leaves. Its height can vary from twenty-five centimeters to a meter high. Heather is a diverse plant, with numerous species differing in leaves and color.

Heather leaves can be yellow, silver, red, orange, bronze, brown, and can also have all shades of green.

Heather blooms with pink, white, lilac, cherry and crimson flowers. Typically, heather has an inconspicuous appearance for six months, but from the moment it blooms, which occurs in July - August, it amazes with the splendor of flowering, turning the garden into a work of art. Due to the fact that the flowers, even when they dry out, remain on the plant, it seems that the heather blooms until late autumn.

Heather is a plant that loves natural conditions.: sunny place or light partial shade, acidic soil, enough moisture. Moisture is especially necessary for very young plants that are just being planted from pots, as well as for all plants before the soil freezes in winter. We must not forget that some types of heather should be covered for the winter. Heather loves mulching, especially with crushed bark, leaf humus, pine needles or sawdust, which also acidify the soil, prevent weeds from multiplying, retain moisture, and protect plant roots from overheating in summer and freezing in winter.

No need to feed heather, in nature it grows on completely poor soils.The best method of propagation is by air layering; for this, a long coil is bent to the ground, secured with a pin, a stone, sprinkled with earth, and watered regularly.

Heather rarely gets sick, but it may suffer from late blight, in which case the plant dies. After the heather has faded, it needs to be trimmed along the green part of the branch, this will help reduce the rate of aging of the heather, increase the splendor of the bush and its flowering.