I thought that all plants put on growth from the tips of shoots but a heather I bought
which had been dyed with food dye ( a light green) now looks like a blonde with her roots
growing out (or his) and shows growth from the bottom of the plant.

Is this correct? Do heathers grow this way?

"Kath" wrote in message ...

I thought that all plants put on growth from the tips of shoots but a
heather I bought
which had been dyed with food dye ( a light green) now looks like a blonde
with her roots
growing out (or his) and shows growth from the bottom of the plant.

Is this correct? Do heathers grow this way?

The dyed old growth stays dyed. What you're seeing is the beginning of next
seasons growth and is of course not dyed.
As Sacha has already said 'why do this?' There is such a huge range* of
naturally beautiful coloured heathers to choose from but most garden centres
sadly stock only a very limited range.
*The last count I saw was over 600 and that was many years ago - it's almost
certainly increased since.

Rod

On Nov 16, 10:06*am, Sacha wrote:
On 2010-11-15 19:09:46 +0000, "Rod" said:







"Kath" *wrote in messagenews:9vt2e69o3i7jjme4lfc7psip4gbfjlnt52@4ax .com...

I thought that all plants put on growth from the tips of shoots but a
heather I bought
which had been dyed with food dye ( a light green) now looks like a
blonde with her roots
growing out (or his) and shows growth from the bottom of the plant.

Is this correct? Do heathers grow this way?

The dyed old growth stays dyed. What you're seeing is the beginning of
next seasons growth and is of course not dyed.
As Sacha has already said 'why do this?' There is such a huge range* of
naturally beautiful coloured heathers to choose from but most garden
centres sadly stock only a very limited range.
*The last count I saw was over 600 and that was many years ago - it's
almost certainly increased since.

Rod

The OP might like to do an online search for some of the nurseries
specialising in heathers. *As you so rightly say, the range is
enormous. *I'm not a great fan of them myself outside mountainous or
hilly gardens in the north but I do admit that planted in a mass, they
can give a terrific display of colour. *There was a great vogue for
doing that back in the 70s ISTR.
--
Sachawww.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes, the late '60s/early '70s was when I was cutting my gardening
teeth and I suppose I got malimprinted. Geoff Smith made a super
heather garden at Harlow Carr around that time and I was buying
heathers for my customers from a specialist nursery on one of the
landed estates in the Dukeries North of Nottingham - the proprietor
had made a very good garden in a dry sandy acid Birch/oak woodland/
heathland and the heathers were lovely in that setting. Before then
and forever since I've had a passion for our Northern mountains and
moors and whatever lives on them and try to find room for some of
those plants at home.

Rod

On Nov 17, 8:27*am, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Tue, 16 Nov 2010 23:58:41 +0000, Sacha wrote:
I used to have several large beds planted with them at our previous
house. Over the years the plants became tired and woody, despite
annual clipping to keep them bushy. But replacement plants didn't
thrive, and I concluded at least one bed had got 'heather sickness'
akin to 'rose sickness'.

Without any actual evidence, as to soil testing etc., *I'm inclined to
agree with you.

There was an article on 'heather sickness' in the Heather Society's
Yearbook/Journal/whatever, at about the time I tried re-planting,
1998/9 or thereabouts, which is why I put my lack of success down to
it. But heathers in the wild don't seem to suffer from it, AFAIK.

--

Chris

Gardening in West Cornwall overlooking the sea.
Mild, but very exposed to salt gales

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Hmm? A lot we don't understand. There are probably a lot of subtle
differences between the garden situation and the moor or heath
situation. In the garden plants are usually bought in and are
frequently infected with Phyophthora cinnamomi and the like. Then the
garden heather bed is almost a pure monocrop and that won't help. I
suspect that in the wild any patches where heathers don't thrive are
simply replaced by other species like bilberries, grasses, gorse etc
but I'm sure there's very much more to it than that. The clipping we
do in the garden is probably no substitute for the grazing by rabbits
and sheep and the burning, though on our local hills where they are
trying to manage for Black Grouse they're mowing patches rather than
burning. Try leaving bunnies to do the trimming in your own garden
though and you won't have much left.

Rod

This is drifting a long way off the OP's topic so maybe we should go
elsewhere if we want to continue.