Due to the very limited frost resistance of most balcony flowers cultivated in this country, many balcony boxes are “cleared away” in autumn and not replanted until spring. A few specimens of winter heather could also provide different colored flowers on the balcony during the cold months of the year.
How do I properly care for winter heather in the balcony box?
In order to successfully cultivate winter heather in the balcony box, it needs calcareous soil, sunny to partly sunny locations and always slightly moist soil. After flowering, cut the plants back in spring and water sparingly on frost-free days.
It's all about choosing the right plants
When selecting suitable plants, you should pay close attention to the labeling in specialist shops or be able to clearly assign the plants themselves to either heather or winter heather. The former grows in boggy heathland in relatively mild locations and blooms in midsummer. It is only hardy to a limited extent or depending on the variety and requires a rather acidic planting substrate such as peat. The winter heather, on the other hand, comes from mountainous regions of Central and Southern Europe, where the plants eke out a rather inconspicuous existence in gravelly river beds or in sparse forests in summer. The snow heather usually blooms between February and April, some varieties even earlier depending on the weather. They are also characterized by the following properties:
- like calcareous soils
- love sunny or at least partially sunny locations
- must never dry out completely in the root area
Properly care for the winter heather in the balcony box
Basically, growing the snow heath in a balcony box or other planter does not differ fundamentally from planting it as a ground cover or border directly in the garden soil. An important care measure is pruning immediately after flowering in spring, which stimulates the regular rejuvenation of the plants. This prevents bare spots and leads to strong new flower bud formation by autumn for the following year. However, plants in balcony boxes are more exposed to the weather than plants in garden beds. Under certain circumstances, even the winter-hardy varieties of snow heather can come into distress due to extreme frosts without winter protection. Even more important for winter damage to the snow heath is the drying out of the soil, which should be prevented by watering sparingly on frost-free days.
Ensure a heather look all year round with mixed planting
If you like the typical look of squat heather plants, then you can easily create the same look in the balcony box all year round. Simply mix specimens of heather and winter heather so that you can enjoy two flowering phases a year. You can temporarily solve the problem of different soil requirements by placing the individual plants in the balcony boxes together with sufficiently large plant pots (with the appropriate soil).
Tip
So that there is no loss of plants when mixing heather and snow heather in the balcony box, the less hardy heather plants should be covered with protective leaves or brushwood in winter. In addition, if possible, you should not plant the individual plants too close together.