Ericaceous compost

I want to grow some heather for the winter/early spring and know that they need ericaceous compost. If I use ericaceous/acidic soil, will other plants grow well in this soil? I want to plant a range of winter and early-spring flowering plants but heather will be the only one that needs acidic soil.

Phil.

 

Question I have always had Phil , I grow a few ericaceous plants in my borders . The shrubs and Magnolia do fine , I top dress with ericaceous compost in the spring and feed ericaceous fertiliser pellets twice a year. Now never had much luck with heathers which may need a full ericaceous plot now whether spring flowering plants will thrive in this I don't know.

 

Lime loving plants would probably show signs of defficiency, you'd be better off chosing plants that live on acidic soil/ heathland, like Maiden Pinks, Star of Bethlehem, Gorse & Broom.

 

I don't like heathers, so never grown them, but I thought Erica carnea would grow on alkaline soil? ... just did a Google:

http://www.heathersociety.org/faq/
"For those whose pH is greater than 6.5, the best advice is to restrict your choice to Erica carnea, Erica x darleyensis, Erica erigena, Erica manipuliflora, Erica vagans and any of the tree heaths with the exception of Erica arborea."

 

Have you done a soil test or do you know your soil type? It may be that's it's already on the acidic side.

 

My soil is pretty acid , certainly acidic enough for Rhododendrons Meconopsis etc yet the vast majority of my considerable collection of plants do fine here. Apart from some varieties of Lilies which must have seriously alkaline soil I can grow just about anything else with regard to soil PH. I had a 200 yard heather bank in a previous house so have a bit of knowledge. Kristen is correct that Erica Carnea can exist quite happily in neutral soil. As a rule I found the summer flowering Heaths and Heathers were the fussy ones regarding PH, some were also not that hardy surprisingly. If you intend to keep the Heathers after they have finished flowering do try to give them a hefty haircut, there is nothing worse IMO than seeing Heathers which are mostly brown with slight growth at the tips due to no pruning. People think wrongly that Heathers are maintenance free, not if you want then to keep looking good they aren't! Having dealt with a huge area of Heather before I am now Heather free in my current garden!

 

If your soil is acid enough for rhoddendrons, I reckon its ok for a good range of heathers.

I should point out though that that claim is based purely on observation in the countryside. In particular up in the peaks (when I lived in Sheffield I used to go up there a lot), rhoddendrons and heather seem to coexist quite happily in the same area. Along with Bracken