Fall decorations, think of the heathers

What are these plants?

Many species exist and can also decorate our gardens. Only two or three of these species bloom naturally in autumn and are interesting for the flowering of graves.

In autumn pots:

· Erica gracilis, Cape heather, flowers from October to January not hardy. Freezes at -5°C but it has a rather voluminous and bright flowering.

· Erica X ‘Hiemalis’, hybrid with more voluminous vegetation than callunes, light pink flowers. Fear the cold

· Calluna vulgaris, Summer and autumn heather, rustic but small and fine. Watch out for plants painted blue, purple or yellow. These are not natural colors. The entire plant is painted but it retains its hardiness and will resume its natural color in the following years.

For our gardens:

· Erica carnea, heather from our gardens, pink heather (meat). It resists quite well in alkaline soil and in the sun (heat) which makes it interesting in the vicinity of Grenoble and in the massifs of the Pre-Alps, Vercors, Chartreuse, Bauges. It has good resistance to cold but fears excess humidity. We now prefer its hybrids known as Darleyensis, existing in many varieties, offering a panel in the three colors white, pink and red with staggered flowering dates from December to April.

· Calluna vulgaris in varieties. Available in three bright colors: white, red and pink. Fine low plant, resistant to cold quite well but not to limestone or to the sun. It is the heather from Sologne that produces the real “earth of heather”.

· Erica vagans, traveling heather, summer flowering from June to August. Requires acidic, sandy, well-drained soil. Avoid putting it in direct sunlight.

· Erica cinerea, bell heather Purplish-pink flowers for the species, from June to October. The plant is quite tall, about 50 cm. Requires acidic soil. Quite hardy plant (-15°C) very present in Europe.

More :

Erica scorparia, brande, coastal broom heather. Flowering from May to July. Oceanic coastline not suitable for our region. It is a tall, undecorative plant that can reach 2 m. Was used to make brooms. Still used to make garden fences, by sight or windbreak in coastal areas.

Care and cultivation:

They are generally shade plants and acid soils. Some species live in a humid environment such as the 4-angled heather, Erica Tetralix, also called marsh heath, others prefer well-drained but not dry (cool) soils. They are all good bee plants that offer our bees nectar and pollen at times when the other flowers are sometimes scarce.

They are often also medicinal plants.

What is the “Heathland”?

It is a substrate resulting from the crushing and surface stripping of areas where heather grows. In France, it is mainly in Sologne that these products are exploited. This substrate comes from the natural buildup and decay of heather over many years. Due to the stripping of the surface layer of the soil, this substrate also contains a very fine siliceous sand which contributes to give it its particularities.
Not to be confused with “heather” soil, which is nothing more than compost made from crushed leaves and wood.
In cultivation, the heather earth can be replaced by a compost of slightly decomposed and crushed leaves, with the addition of 10% silica sand, by “fir tree” or by blond peat.
At the beginning of the 20th century, around Grenoble, heather soil was recovered in the Vercors at Bois Barbu, but as this commodity was rather rare, it was reserved for delicate crops such as greenhouse orchids or fragile seedlings. From the middle of the 20th century, peat from Holland, Ireland, Germany and then Siberia largely replaced heather soil in growing media. But the extraction of these products in large quantities are very damaging to the environment. These are now often replaced by urban composts, the quality of which sometimes leaves something to be desired.

Ask all your questions during the gardening program on Sunday morning on France bleu Isère from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. by calling 04 76 46 45 45