Other Names:  Cantabrian Heath, Cantabrian Heather

Description:

An interesting shrub featuring reddish-purple urn shaped flowers in summer and glossy deep green foliage; great for massing in the garden; requires organic highly acidic soil, full sun and absolutely no standing water; great in containers as well

Ornamental Features

Waley's Red Irish Heath is bathed in stunning nodding fuchsia bell-shaped flowers rising above the foliage from early summer to early fall. It has dark green evergreen foliage which emerges light green in spring. The small glossy oval leaves remain dark green throughout the winter.

Landscape Attributes

Waley's Red Irish Heath is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a mounded form. It lends an extremely fine and delicate texture to the landscape composition which should be used to full effect.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and should only be pruned after flowering to avoid removing any of the current season's flowers. It is a good choice for attracting bees to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Waley's Red Irish Heath is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Waley's Red Irish Heath will grow to be about 14 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 14 inches. It tends to fill out right to the ground and therefore doesn't necessarily require facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 20 years.

This shrub should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is very fussy about its soil conditions and must have rich, acidic soils to ensure success, and is subject to chlorosis (yellowing) of the foliage in alkaline soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Waley's Red Irish Heath makes a fine choice for the outdoor landscape, but it is also well-suited for use in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers against which the thriller plants stand out. Note that when grown in a container, it may not perform exactly as indicated on the tag - this is to be expected. Also note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.