According to an old Scottish legend, a modest Heather at the request of God began to grow on the bare slopes of the hills, blown by all the winds. The Lord for this granted him increased endurance, unpretentiousness and natural charm, as well as the aroma and qualities of the honey plant.
Small evergreen heather bushes are used abroad for landscaping balconies. Homeliness is completed by a well-formed heather garden that does not require special care. In addition, the plant is endowed with miraculous properties. You can still hear legends about the magical heather drink. Confirmation of this is the heroic ballad Heather Honey by R. Stevenson.
Plant description
Common heather grows throughout European territory; it also grows in Siberia, the Azores, and Morocco. Heathers live in the most difficult geographical and climatic conditions: along the slopes of the mountains, in wastelands, in swamps and peatlands. Northwest America also has heather plantations of natural origin. At the time of flowering heather ordinary turns the earth into a colorful tapestry.
This plant is a small shrub with a reddish-brown bark, with a huge number of branches on which very small, sessile, almost trihedral opposite leaves grow. Common heather has many varieties, very different in leaf color. All shades of green are inherent in these species, but there are silver, yellow, bronze, orange, red and brown leaves. Of the many goblet small flowers, white, pink, lilac, raspberry racemose inflorescences are formed.
Care
If you decide to grow heather (a plant in culture), you should create conditions that are close to natural conditions: acidic soil, location on a sunny or partial shade platform, provide young plants with plenty of moisture. Abundant moistening is necessary before the soil freezes, and some cultivars require shelter from the spruce branches for the cold season. Mulching with crushed bark, needles, leaf humus, sawdust, which oxidize the soil, favorably affects the growth of shrubs. In addition, mulching inhibits weed growth, protects plant roots from winter cold and summer heat, and traps moisture in the soil. Heathers do not need special top dressing; in nature, they grow in poor soils.
Cultural heather care requires the following: regular forming clippings, which are usually done after the flowering period in order to delay the aging of the plant, to preserve the splendor of the bush and stimulate abundant flowering in the next season. Clippings are done only on the green part of the plant with leaves. Plants trimmed to the level of wood cannot form new shoots and die. To maintain a natural, careless and "shaggy" look, large branches are shortened at different levels.
Heather plants are propagated by layering. The longest branches are selected, bent to the ground and fixed in the middle with a hairpin or stone, and this place is sprinkled with earth. Layers quickly give the root system, and after a few months new plants are already growing. They can be cut off the mother branches, dig out and transplanted to a permanent place.
Heather bushes are not affected by garden pests, but can suffer from late blight. Gardeners note that the most common cause of death of young plants is the drying out of the soil. Therefore, you need to monitor the state of the soil in the root system of young shoots.
The plant "Heather ordinary" has an antibacterial, hypotensive, moderate hypothermic effect, accelerates blood coagulation. In ancient times, the plant was even attributed the property of dissolving various tumors.