Heath, heather can offer color year-round with proper care

Originally published Saturday, February 2, 2002

HARSTINE ISLAND -- Only a few mountain varieties come native to the Northwest.

So why plant heather and heath?

"I just fell in love with heather -- the color and interest all year," said Karla Lortz, who bought the mail-order division of Heather Acres in Elma about seven years ago and turned it into Heaths and Heathers.

"I just love plants. It was hard to specialize in one thing, but I did. You go out and look at a yard and you see these bright, red, blazing plants."

Lortz -- who imports heathers from Canada, Denmark, Germany, England, Ireland, even Sweden -- believes more people would use heather in their landscapes if they knew more about the variety.

Most of Lortz's catalog and online business comes from out of state.

"We keep a very low profile locally," Lortz said. "Only a quarter of our business is from Washington."

Some gardeners don't care for heather properly and then give up, said Ken Hutchins of Mossyrock.

Helping out at Lortz's nursery recently, Hutchins admitted he, too, harbors a love for heathers.

Hutchins, who used to run his own mail-order business for heathers in Corvallis, Ore., has traveled to England and Ireland to observe choice heathers.

"People impulse buy and pick them up in the summertime," Hutchins said. "It's a plant that doesn't warn you that it needs water. It can be dead two weeks before it looks it."

Hutchins said heathers planted in the summer need more attention. They often need slow watering to penetrate the root ball.

Fall, early spring and winter are better times to plant, depending on the variety.

Pruning is essential, too, to keep new growth coming throughout the plants, especially in the center, which can fade if left unattended.

"When they're finished blooming," Lortz said, "they need a hair cut."

Most heathers, Lortz said, won't be attractive to deer unless they're over-fertilized.

"We fertilize them when we plant them -- with rhododendron food -- and then never again if they're doing well because that's what makes them attractive to deer is fertilizer.

"Watch (heathers) the first season though. If it looks like they're (deer) nibbling on them, cover them the first year."

Lortz, president of the Cascade Heather Society and former secretary the North American Heather Society, hopes to create a display garden someday to showcase all the heaths and heathers in the world -- an estimated 1,500.

"We're working toward a national collection -- one of every heather alive," Lortz said. "I probably have only 800 heath and heather."

Many varieties of heath and heather offer not only color but also fabulous texture and, in the case of hearty heathers, drought tolerance and flourishing color in the cold.

Generally speaking, heaths have needles and heathers have more scaly foliage.

Heath encompasses the genus erica, which includes many different groups from summer to winter bloomers. True heathers are calluna vulgaris.

Both terms are so generic, however, some gardeners use the term heather to cover all of them.

Both excel in the Northwest as evergreen shrubs if given the right conditions, which include soil with good drainage and partial to full sun.

If you plan it right, you can mix heathers that bloom summer, spring, fall and winter for year-round interest -- nevermind the fabulous foliage.

"Our specialty is colored foliage," Lortz said. "I have a colored foliage obsession."

Heath and heather

- Visit the Heaths and Heathers Web site at: www.heathsandheathers.com.

- Visit the North American Heather Society at: www.northamerican heathersociety.org

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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