Shrub (ericaceous)
How to grow heather
Calluna vulgaris / Erica carnea / E. cinerea
Heather wants full sun, sharp drainage and poor soil. Summer-flowering Calluna and bell heather must have acid soil, pH 4.5 to 6.0; winter-flowering Erica carnea and Erica × darleyensis tolerate neutral and even limy ground, so check which you are buying. Plant in March to April or September to October, 30 to 40 cm apart, and water through the first summer. After that the one job that matters is a trim every year after flowering, never cutting into bare wood.
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy
- Position
- Full sun
- Soil
- Acid, free-draining, lean (winter Erica tolerate lime)
- Ideal pH
- 4.5 to 6.0
- Water
- Low to moderate; rainwater for Calluna
- Feeding
- Light feeder
Sowing and planting heather
WhenPlant Mar to Apr or Sep to Oct; flowers Jul to Oct (Calluna) or Dec to Apr (Erica carnea); trim after flowering
Starting off
Plant pot-grown stock Mar to Apr or Sep to Oct, teasing out the tight rootball; soak dry pots for an hour first. Propagate by 3 to 5 cm semi-ripe tip cuttings in Jul to Aug in 50:50 ericaceous compost and sharp sand at 15 to 18°C under a lid, rooting in 6 to 8 weeks; or drop layering, mounding gritty compost over an old plant in Apr and lifting rooted pieces in Sep.
Spacing and planting
Calluna vulgaris cultivars spread 30 to 50 cm by 20 to 40 cm tall; Erica carnea 25 to 40 cm by 15 to 25 cm; E. cinerea 30 cm. Plant 30 to 40 cm apart (5 to 7 per square metre) with the rootball top just below the surface and the lowest leaves at soil level, in soil opened up with grit and leaf mould, never manure. Excellent in a 30 cm pot of ericaceous compost, especially winter E. carnea.
Varieties worth growing
- Calluna vulgaris 'Kinlochruel'
- Double white flowers in August and September on a neat 25 cm plant; acid soil only.
- Calluna vulgaris 'Wickwar Flame'
- Grown for foliage: gold and orange in summer, turning red in cold weather, with mauve flowers as a bonus. Acid soil only.
- Erica carnea 'Myretoun Ruby'
- Deep ruby-pink flowers from January to April over dark foliage; lime-tolerant, low and spreading, good ground cover.
- Erica carnea 'Springwood White'
- The strongest white winter heath, trailing and vigorous, flowering January to March; lime-tolerant and useful on banks.
- Erica × darleyensis 'Kramer's Rote'
- Magenta flowers from December to April on a taller, bushier plant to about 35 cm; the most forgiving heather for ordinary garden soil.
Heather month by month
Timings are for central England. Allow two weeks later in the north and on cold, heavy soil.
- January
Winter heaths in flower. Nothing to do.
- February
Winter heaths in flower. Nothing to do.
- March
Clip Calluna and bell heather, removing last year's dead flower spikes. Plant.
- April
Plant. Clip winter heaths as the flowers fade. Mulch 2 to 3 cm with composted bark. Drop-layer old plants.
- May
Finish clipping winter heaths. Water new plants weekly.
- June
Water first-year plants in dry spells. Weed by hand; the roots are shallow.
- July
Calluna and bell heather begin to flower. Semi-ripe cuttings.
- August
Summer heathers at their best. Cuttings. Nematodes on pots.
- September
Plant. Lift rooted layers.
- October
Plant. Foliage cultivars colour up as nights cool.
- November
Nothing to do. Brush fallen tree leaves off the plants.
- December
Erica × darleyensis begins to flower. Nothing to do.
Feeding heather
Heather in the ground needs no fertiliser. It is built for lean, acid soil and feeding makes it soft, floppy and short-lived. Only pots and very poor sand get a little, at half rate. Never use lime or manure.
Very low, lean, acid soil; an ericaceous feed only if needed.
Feeding plan
Every year, beds
Nothing
No fertiliser. A 2 to 3 cm mulch of composted bark or leaf mould in April is all the feeding an established heather bed needs.
April, only on very poor sand where growth is thin and pale
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
35 g/m², half the lowest label rate, once. At 5 to 7 plants per square metre that is about 5 to 7 g a plant. This is not an ericaceous feed.
April, pots
Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6
1 g per litre of compost on the surface, half the lowest label top-dress rate: about 15 g for a 30 cm pot (about 15 litres), once a year.
Before planting Calluna or bell heather, only if a test shows pH above 6
To lower the pH by one unit: 55 g/m² on sand, 110 g/m² on loam in two doses six months apart, 175 g/m² on clay in three doses; never more than 80 g/m² in one go. Winter heaths do not need it.
Dr Forest has no ericaceous feed, and heather in the ground needs none. Where a feed is used (pots, very poor sand) the plan uses the Fruit & Vegetable Fertiliser 4-5-6 at half the label rate; it is not an ericaceous feed. Mycorrhizal Fungi Powder is not recommended for ericaceous plants.
Signs to watch
Yellow new growth with green veins on Calluna → lime-induced chlorosis from alkaline soil or hard water → rainwater, sulphur chips and an ericaceous feed with chelated iron, or switch to lime-tolerant E. carnea. Pale, soft, floppy growth that flops open → excess nitrogen or rich soil → no feeding, lean grit and leaf mould only. Brown dieback of whole plants from the centre in a wet winter → waterl
Pests, diseases and problems
Foliage turns grey-green then brown and whole plants die, often in a spreading patch on heavy or wet ground
Phytophthora root rot
No cure. Lift and bin dead plants with the soil round the roots, and do not replant heathers there. Open the soil with grit or plant on a raised bank elsewhere.
New plants brown and die in their first summer though the bed has been watered
The peaty nursery rootball has dried out and sheds water instead of taking it up
Soak the pot in a bucket for an hour before planting, tease out the rootball, and water directly onto each plant through the first summer.
Grey fluffy mould and brown dead patches inside dense plants in damp, still weather
Grey mould (botrytis)
Clip out dead patches, clear fallen leaves from the centre of the plants, and space new plantings so air moves between them.
Pot-grown heathers wilt and lift out of the compost with few roots
Vine weevil grubs
Nematodes watered into the pot in late August or September and again in April.
Shoots grazed back to stumps over winter, mostly on new plantings
Rabbits
Net or fence new plants for their first two winters; established plants usually grow away from it.
Pruning
Pruning and care
Clip Calluna and E. cinerea in Mar, shearing off the dead flower spikes down to just above the previous year's growth, never into bare old wood, which does not regrow. Clip winter Erica carnea and E. × darleyensis straight after flowering in Apr to May the same way. Unclipped plants go leggy and bare-centred within 3 to 4 years and cannot be renovated; replace them. Mulch 2 to 3 cm with composted bark or l
Good to knowTrim after flowering to keep it compact; mix summer and winter types for year-round colour.
Growing heather in pots
Heathers do well in pots and troughs, winter Erica carnea especially, where they give colour from December to April. Use a 30 cm pot or wider with ericaceous compost and a fifth grit for drainage. Water with rainwater for Calluna; the compost should stay just moist and never sodden, and never bone dry either, as a dried-out heather rarely recovers. Trim after flowering exactly as in the ground. Expect to replace pot plants after four or five years.
Heather: common questions
When should I trim heather?
Trim every year once flowering is over: summer heathers (Calluna and bell heather) in March, winter heaths in April or May. Shear off the dead flower spikes to just below the old flowers and stop there. Heather does not regrow from bare brown wood.
Does heather need ericaceous compost?
Summer-flowering Calluna and bell heather do: they need acid soil and yellow and fail in lime. Winter-flowering Erica carnea and Erica × darleyensis grow in neutral and mildly alkaline soil, so in the ground they manage without. In pots, ericaceous compost suits all of them.
Why is my heather turning brown?
The commonest causes are a rootball that dried out in the first summer, root rot in wet soil, or age on a plant that was never trimmed. Brown patches in the centre of an old woody plant will not green up again; replace it and trim the new one every year.
Sources
Growing information on this page was checked against these references in November 2026. Feeding rates are Dr Forest label rates.