I got these from a specialty heather catalog when I ordered all the heathers. These are 'Ghost Hill' which I thought would have white flowers, but they are deep pink. These two heaths are the only plants that survive of all those heathers I planted!
Shear in spring after flowers.
 |
| March 16, 2010 |
Really pretty in very late winter. The one on the right is sparser, with a twisted trunk at its base, but both look good sandwiched in between the dwarf cypresses. Nice dark green foliage in summer. They stay rounded and low.
 |
| April 13, 2010 I love how the deep mauve peeks out between other plants |
In 2012 the two heaths are both nice round shapes, filled in and growing well. Finally!
 |
| May 2, 2012, after shearing |
 |
| July 8, 2012, the one that was so misshaped has filled in |
 |
| 4/10/13 |
Oof, such winter burn in 2014. The back half of each heath had some flowers and live looking stems, but the front of each plant was desiccated and crispy. The whole plant struggled to put out any flowers.
 |
| 4/2/14 |
But surprisingly, they recovered and filled out nice and green by summer. Here you can see one under each window, forming two little green buns.
 |
| 6/14/14 |
By mid summer you'd never know they had looked so bad in early spring.
 |
| 7/25/14 |
Normally these heath plants bloom in March, at winter's end. But here they are in early January, and they have been blooming since before Christmas. Did the winterburn last winter and the stress in early spring delay them -- and now they are confused, blooming off schedule?
 |
| 1/2/15 |
 |
| 1/5/15 |
The heath on the right that had so much winterburn never fully recovered its rounded shape in 2015. You can see the two green buns under each window in summer, but the one on the right is flatter, less rounded. Up close it still had dead spots and parts missing.
 |
| 7/3/15 |
But both bloomed in late winter of 2015, just as the Christmas wreaths went back up on the windows.
Propagation:
Try layering some to get more plants to fill in where they are sparse. Semi-ripewood cuttings in summer, overwinter in coldframe.
