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mel0504

By Mel0504

United Kingdom

Hi, Could you please name this plant which I acquired at as a table decoration. Is it an indoor or outdoor plant and how should it be fed.
Thanks very much from Melvyn Rosenthal




Answers

 

Looks like heather to me. Others will know more than me, not having had success with them myself...
They usually like acidic soil, not too much water but regularly, small occasional feeds with ericaceous fertiliser, good amounts of light & don't seem to like central heating.
Having said that, there are a lot of different types & you may have an easy-to-grow one

30 Oct, 2018

 

There are three types of heather/heath - Calluna, Daboecia and Erica. Some will tolerate lime, most won't. This one might be Erica darleyensis, but to be sure we'd need a clear, close up photo of a stem showing the flowers and their arrangement clearly.

30 Oct, 2018

 

It is really an outdoor plant, possibly an Erica as Bamboo says. I would let it continue to flower seeing as you bought it as a table decoration and plant it outside afterwards.

30 Oct, 2018

 

I tried growing this, but they didn't come back after one brutal winter here in NY.

30 Oct, 2018

 

I think bamboo is correct. as said it is an outdoor plant really. I wouldn't feed it at all while indoors and then when you plant out add a slow release granular feed. it will do well in open ground or in a trough.

30 Oct, 2018

 

Can I thank all of you for your comments about my plant which you believe is an outdoor heather.
I will keep it indoors whilst flowering and plant outside when there are no frosts.
Thank you once again. Regards
Mel

30 Oct, 2018

 

It will do far better in the garden, plant it in some decent ericacious compost, and if you have room you could plant a small group of these, winter/spring flowering, don’t forget these need trimming after flowering, yours will need just a slight trim in the spring without going into the old wood, this done over the years will keep it nice and compact and stops them getting old and leggy.

30 Oct, 2018

 

You probably don't have the right soil in your garden for just planting it out.
You'll need a big container filled with the acidic, ericaceous compost that you can buy for rhododendrons/azaleas & use an ericaceous fertiliser. Heathers are nice but they're not something that's natural outside of their wild environment. Given the right soil, weather conditions are not so important though

30 Oct, 2018

 

Not sure about that Darren. Winter flowering heather (Erica) doesn't need ericaceous compost as much as the summer flowering Calluna does. It does fine here in soil that just a shade more acid than neutral. If neighbours hydrangeas are blue you should have no problems.

30 Oct, 2018

 

If it is actually Erica darleyensis, it'll be fine in ordinary garden soil unless its extremely limey or alkaline - this particular one is even tolerant of a small amount of lime in the soil, so no need to put it in a pot. But I have to say, it would be best to get it outdoors as soon as you can, because it is an outdoor hardy plant, not a houseplant - but it will need hardening off for a couple of weeks prior to planting because its been indoors. Keeping it indoors till spring likely means it won't make it...indoors, they're just shortlived passing visitors.

31 Oct, 2018

 

Ah, thanks for the correction☺

31 Oct, 2018

 

Sure, Darren - the business of 'heathers' is a complicated one! Knowing the exact variety is quite critical ... but you are right in that most do not appreciate alkaline soil.

31 Oct, 2018

How do I say thanks?

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