Bright green foliage on upward, erect stems are cloaked in long lasting white buds that start in summer and go through into fall and beyond. For this reason, it is often referred to as a bud-blooming plant. While the foliage is said to take on  orange and red colors in cooler weather, I don’t think we get cold enough for it to do that, but that would be an added benefit if it did. It has been planted in the Winter Garden and then the color would pick up on the Coral Bark Maple and the Dogwoods.

Pronunciation: kal-LOO-nuh vul-GAIR-iss

Species Meaning: Common

Photos

Cultivation Notes

While they enjoy some water, they do not like overly soggy conditions. Free-draining acid soil is best. Full sun to part shade. A spring pruning will help to keep them compact.

Additional Information

Calluna vulgaris is a small, variably-sized, evergreen shrub that is native primarily to moors, dunes, bogs, heaths and hillsides from northern and western Europe to Siberia, Turkey and Morocco. It has naturalized in parts of North America. It has tiny, four-ranked, scale-like leaves in overlapping pairs that appear on slender stems rising on average to 24” tall. Leaves are typically gray to green in spring and summer but acquire bronze to purple tones in fall and winter. Flowers in terminal, one-sided, spike-like racemes appear in mid to late summer.

In Our Garden

Plant ID: P21215

Found in Winter Garden,

Close to the intersection of the main path and the path through the Winter Garden.

We acquired this plant from Seven Ds - grown by Skagit Gardens.