Calluna vulgaris 'Hilda' Garden Girls® Series– Heather 'Hilda'

The 'Hilda' Heather brings a touch of bright, long-lasting colour to autumn scenes with its unique foliage and tireless bloom. A member of the award-winning Garden Girls® series, it adorns itself with brilliant lilac-pink flower buds that refuse to open. This distinctive trait gives them exceptional resistance to bad weather and a colour that persists from the end of summer until the first snows. Its magnificent silvery-grey foliage offers a superb contrast, adding another dimension of colour and texture to its beauty.

Characteristics

• Foliage: Fine, evergreen foliage in a beautiful silvery-grey shade, which offers a striking contrast with the pink flowers and remains decorative all year.
• Flowering: As a "bud-bloomer," its long spikes are covered in bright lilac-pink buds that remain closed. This ensures a spectacular and very long-lasting colour display from August to November.
• Light: Requires full sun to maintain its silvery foliage colour and ensure dense flowering.
• Habit: Adopts an upright, compact, and bushy habit, forming a very neat little plant cushion.
• Growth: Slow-growing, it reaches a mature size of 30 to 50 cm (12-20 in) in height and width.
• Soil: Essential: requires acidic (pH 4.5-5.5), poor, sandy, and above all, perfectly drained soil. It absolutely cannot tolerate heavy, clay, or alkaline soils.
• Temperature: Hardy in Zone 5. Its survival in the ground in many parts of Canada is highly dependent on adequate winter protection, such as a consistent snow cover or a mulch of conifer boughs.
• Resistance: Very resistant to White-tailed deer. The closed flower buds stand up admirably to wind and rain.

Use

• Types of Use: Perfect in fall containers where its silvery foliage and pink flowers work wonders. Ideal in window boxes, rock gardens, acidic borders, or in groups. Often used as a seasonal annual for its prolonged fall colour.
• Decorative Advantages: Provides a delicate texture and a refined colour combination (pink and silver) at a season when the garden is winding down. It pairs beautifully with asters, grasses, and other fall stars.

Care

• Watering: Water regularly to maintain consistent moisture, but without ever waterlogging the soil. Good drainage is crucial.
• Fertilization: Requires very little fertilization. If necessary, use a low-dose fertilizer for acid-loving plants in the spring.
• Pruning: Prune lightly in early spring, just below the previous year's flower spikes, to maintain a compact shape. Avoid cutting into old wood.
• Planting: Incorporate soil for acid-loving plants (heather/rhododendron soil) or peat moss when planting to ensure an adequate pH.
• Winter Protection: For in-ground planting, protect the shrub from drying winter winds with a mulch of conifer boughs. A good snow cover is its best insulator.