How to grow ling heather

Hi, and good morning,
Has anyone had much success growing ling heather from seed? And where can you buy ling heather seed from.?
Thanks curly..

 

Buy a bale of sphagnum moss peat, break some of it down and put it in pots, keep the surface moist after denching it initially, it can be difficult to wet.

After a few months in spring you will find heathers growing from seed within the peat.

Although, I cant see why you would want to, there are lots of heather plants available at garden centres.

 

Thanks Pete, i want to grow a thousand or so plants it might be a bit expensive buying them from a nursery/garden centre .
Can you not buy seed from anywhere I've had a look but to no avail..

 

My suggestion would be then to buy some plants and grow from cuttings, much faster than from seed anyway.

 

Soft wood cuttings with bottom heat?

 

No heat required if taken in the summer.
Just a half ripe stem, strip off leaves on the bottom half and put in damp peat.
Cover with polythene.

I assume you have acid conditions for growing them on?

 

Yes, a two acre site on the south Shropshire hill's very peaty/ acidic soil.

 

So what's actually growing there now?

 

Gorse/grass

 

I quite like gorse

 

I do to there's lots of it up here , it's taking over we've lost alot of other flora because of it.
Our other field is being turned into an arboretum . All for forage for our honey bee's

 

Hi, I've not introduced my self,
I'm curly and have green fingers . I've been a gardener / landscape gardener for 20+ years and I love to grow most things from seed / cuttings / division and many other ways .
My favs are perennials mainly.
Cheers curly...

 

Welcome to the forum @Curly green fingers ! .

 

Thanks, I'm just getting to grips with the forum