Spring Torch Heather

Scotch Heather is mostly known for its lilac to pink blooms in summer and fall, but the best varieties offer so much more. Yes, the Spring Torch Scotch Heather has lovely pink blooms in summer, but where is the torch? The answer is in spring, when the new growth is vibrantly colored pink, peach and orange. The brilliance of these colors is amazing, and has to be seen to be believed. It’s hard not to think these are stunning blossoms, with every stem glowing in shades from light pink to darker peach-pinks, and deepening into fluorescent apricots. Gradually fading to green by early summer, the pale-pink blooms quickly take over, lasting from August into October. So there is hardly a week from spring to fall when this plant isn’t glowing with color. A fabulous ground cover for sunny places on poor, sandy soils that are acidic, it grows well at the coast, and is very cold-resistant, but doesn’t like hot and humid summers. These remarkable shrubs are like nothing else, and if you don’t have suitable soil they make lovely plants for pots and boxes.

Growing Spring Torch Scotch Heather

Size and Appearance

Spring Torch Scotch Heather is a compact evergreen shrub that is a spreading mound of many slender stems, rising to a little less than a foot tall, and spreading to as much as 18 inches across. The leaves are slender triangles, and grow in rows up the stems, clasping them at the base of the leaf. New growth in spring emerges bright reds and oranges, slowly lightening through pinks to become pale primrose yellow. By early summer the leaves have turned green, and by August rows of tiny blossoms, bright lavender-pink, cover the upper parts of all the branches. These last right through September, and even when they dry and the plant becomes dormant they keep their color. The color is held even better if you cut some stems and hang them to dry. These can be used for dried arrangements and the coloring lasts for years. In winter the foliage turns bronzy-browns and purples, making it interesting all year round.

Using Spring Torch Scotch Heather in Your Garden

The Spring Torch Scotch Heather is an easy and colorful ground cover for the front of shrub beds. It is great for slopes and banks, where it can cover large areas with interest. The unique light, fine look is great and can’t be found in any other plant. Use it for sunny parts of woodland gardens where you grow rhododendrons and other acid-loving plants. For ground cover space plants 12 inches apart each way, setting them back a little from a grassy edge, but planting close to hard edges and paths, to soften the straight lines. Ideal for semi-natural plantings with pines, junipers, Vaccinium and other plants of poor acid soils.

If you don’t have suitable soil, don’t worry, grow it in pots and planters, using soil for acid-loving plants. Overwinter inside a cool porch, or bury the pots in the garden for winter.

Hardiness

The Spring Torch Scotch Heather is very cold-tolerant, and will grow perfectly in zones 5 and 6, and well in zone 4 too, with minimal winter damage. It won’t grow in warmer areas of the east, but it will grow in zones 7 and 8 in the northwest, where summers are cool and damp.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

Plant the Spring Torch Scotch Heather in full sun for the best foliage colors and blooming. It could take a little afternoon shade in zone 6. The ideal soil is sandy, well-drained and moist, but the acid level is the most important thing. It should be between 4.5 and 5.5 on the pH scale. If it is 6.5 or below, add plenty of peat moss when planting, or pine needles, and it should grow just fine. It is happy on poor soils too, and will grow where not much else will. Resistant to salt-spray, it is very useful on sandy soils in coastal gardens. Established plants are remarkably drought tolerant, but they do benefit from a generous watering from time to time of you can.

Maintenance and Pruning

Because deer don’t touch it, and it has few if any pests or diseases, the Spring Torch Scotch Heather is trouble-free and easy to grow if you have suitable soil and cool summers. If you want it neater, and to maximize the spring color, trim in late winter, before new growth begins, by cutting old flowering stems back, leaving about 1 inch of that newer growth to sprout. This keeps plants very bushy and dense. Don’t trim new shoots as this reduces flowering.

History and Origin of Spring Torch Scotch Heather

You will find Scotch heather, Calluna vulgaris, growing not just in Scotland, but in Iceland too, and all across the mountains of Europe and western Asia. It is found chiefly in very poor soils, and especially in areas that have been overgrazed for centuries, because sheep and cows won’t eat it, even if they are very hungry. It wasn’t popular in gardens until the 20th century, because of its association with poverty and ‘peasant’ farming. When interest in mountains and alpine flowers developed, growing heather soon followed. There are hundreds of different forms, but almost all of them are of unknown origin. They were probably unique seedlings spotted by a sharp-eyed gardener or nursery owner. ‘Spring Torch’ is certainly unique, but we don’t know who first discovered it.

Buying Spring Torch Scotch Heather at the Tree Center

Scotch heather is not so widely grown in America as it is in Europe, and that is a shame. There are large areas where it will grow well, and if you live in one – or just want a plant in a pot – then now is your chance to have one of the most colorful varieties there is. Order your Spring Torch Scotch Heather now, because it sells so fast we simply can’t keep it in stock.