Heather Calluna vulgaris

Hi,

I have recently bought x6 pots of heather (unplanned and unprepared) from my local nurseries while purchasing some Olive trees. I am admittedly a gardening amateur so please be gentle with me .

Essentially I was unable to plant the heather until 2 weeks after purchasing. After this time 3 of the heathers from the pot looked to be doing quite well and and since being planted have filled out a bit from the pot and look quite happy. The other 3 at the time of me planting from the pot looked to have deteriorated but I thought I would plant them anyway to give them a chance.

Essentially since planting around 1-2 weeks ago they do not seem to have improved (photos attached). Are these heathers still alive and can still thrive or is it best to give up and take them out? On some of the heathers the foliage is quite brown. Does brown foliage and brown base mean the heather is no longer alive?

To confirm this is what they looked like at the time of me planting them (they did look fine at the garden centre but were left for 2 weeks while I could plant them).

They are currently planted in acidic soil (pH6 ish assuming my soils tester correct) and also have near full sun. Added sand for better draining etc. and used ericaceous compost to try and help them along.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

The foliage under the flowers still looks green on some of them, so I'd leave, and see what happens.

 

They will benefit from regular watering to get established. Keep the soil moist but not waterlogged. You have a good mulch there to keep the moisture in .

 

Thanks for your reply. Yes, there is still quite a bit of green foliage at the base under the flowers on one of them, on the other two the foliage is more brown and one is particularly bad and the flowers are lop sided. I will persist and see how I get on. Thanks.

 

Thanks for your reply and advice. I suspect they deteriorated in the 2 weeks after purchasing when they were left and not watered properly (a learning for me as I bought without research, unplanned and prepared which was probably not a good idea in hindsight). I will see how it goes but I think I have done all I can for them now and will try and get the right balance when watering.

 

All you can do is keep an eye on them, and hope that the autumn/winter weather will benefit. Ling, which is what you have, is pretty hard to kill [even when being burned on hillsides to rejuvenate it] but it does like plenty of moisture.
A pot grown specimen can easily dry out though, and is therefore different from specimens in the wild, so it's likely that the damage was done early on. If they come away, you can cut off the dead foliage next spring.