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Calluna Heather advise needed

ershovanadia1989ershovanadia1989 Posts: 2
in Problem solving
Hi there. 
I have bought a beautiful Calluna vulgaris "High Five" 4 or 5 months ago... 
Unfortunately I made lots of mistakes and most probably killed the plant... 
Before I buy a new one and start over again, I want to analize my mistakes... 

I bought a plant and after few weeks I repoted the plant into a bigger pot.

Since the pot was a little bit bigger I added the new soil (the regular Potting soil organic blocks for house plants & flowers). Which might have been a mistake, since I am not sure if this soil was acidic enough... I would appreciate if you advise where I can find this info in the future, is there any markings on the package that specify the acidity level? I am a novice and know nothing or very little about the planting soil... 
I also put some styrofoam in the pot's bottom for a better drainage (instead of the stones). 

My next obvious mistake was to keep it indoor... 
Well, I loved its look so much that I decided to keep it in the room instead of balcony which I intended first... 

I watered the plant once a week on a regular basis... 
And didn't pay too much attention to it... 

After 4-5 month of such ... 
Some time ago I finally have noticed that my flower doesn't look that shiny any more... it looks dull... The flowers dried out... I'm not sure about the stem, it still have a little moisture inside... I looked at the roots - don't see any white roots, more like brownish/red.   

Now I brought it outside to see if there is still any hope left and if there would be no improvements I will buy a new one...  

But before that I want to understand how to make things right this time. 
I would appreciate your recommendations... especially regarding the soil. 

PS The first 4 photos is how it looks now, and the last one - how it looked when I bought it. 



Thanks in advance, Nadia


Posts

  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    I think, considering it's been indoors it doesn't look hopeless... the flowers don't last for ever, so the fact they're dropping off isn't surprising.  The plants will have a rest until next summer's flowering.  The gold-leaved variety has gone green because to maintain the colour it needs sunlight, which it won't have had indoors.

    I would reckon that if your compost doesn't say it's suitable for ericaceous plants, it'll contain lime.  Best to buy a bag actually labelled "ericaceous" to be sure.  Unless your tap water is lime-free it's helpful to water heathers with rainwater, too.  

    I'd give them a chance to recover.  Hopefully they'll get rained on, on your balcony; they don't look as if the compost has done them a lot of harm (they would go yellow and sickly-looking if so), but in the spring, if the plants are producing new shoots, you could remove the suspect compost and replace it with ericaceous.  
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • Alan Clark2 in LiverpoolAlan Clark2 in Liverpool Posts: 2,190
    I have tried growing Callunas in my slightly acid soil but they did not thrive, unlike Ericas, which seem less demanding of acid. So I would definitely grow them in Ericaceous compost, and outside.
  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    They definitely like an acidic soil but also rather well trained. I treat them as annuals though in pots as I don't have the space and they get quite large. 

  • ershovanadia1989ershovanadia1989 Posts: 2
    Liriodendron said:
    I think, considering it's been indoors it doesn't look hopeless... the flowers don't last for ever, so the fact they're dropping off isn't surprising.  The plants will have a rest until next summer's flowering.  The gold-leaved variety has gone green because to maintain the colour it needs sunlight, which it won't have had indoors.

    I would reckon that if your compost doesn't say it's suitable for ericaceous plants, it'll contain lime.  Best to buy a bag actually labelled "ericaceous" to be sure.  Unless your tap water is lime-free it's helpful to water heathers with rainwater, too.  

    I'd give them a chance to recover.  Hopefully they'll get rained on, on your balcony; they don't look as if the compost has done them a lot of harm (they would go yellow and sickly-looking if so), but in the spring, if the plants are producing new shoots, you could remove the suspect compost and replace it with ericaceous.  
    Thank you so much for your answer! Yes, that is what I was thinking too, but needed some reassurance... I have already ordered the proper soil, hope that will help as well. 
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