How do you care for heaths and heathers?

How to Grow and Care for Chinese Money Plants Pilea peperomioides

Ric rac cactus is a fast-growing and easy to care for plant, making it ideal for beginners. It’s durable and can survive a good amount of neglect too.

How to Grow and Care for Queen’s Tears Bromeliads Billbergia nutans

How to Grow and Care for Mexican Fan Palms Washingtonia robusta

Apricot (Prunus armeniaca) trees produce delicious fruit in summer and growing your own means the fruit can be enjoyed when they are sweet and meltingly ripe, unlike shop-bought fruit, which must be harvested early to be transported while firm. Apricot trees can be grown successfully outside in warmer parts of the UK, notably the south-east of England. Elsewhere, because the beautiful pink blossom is borne in early spring and is therefore liable to frost damage, only grow apricots in large pots and keep under cover for the colder months. When planted in the right conditions, an apricot tree should start producing fruit within two or three years and live for decades.

Winter heath (Erica carnea, Zones 5-8) is surprisingly absent from our Northeastern gardens. Species in the heath genus (Erica) are often confused or lumped in with heather (Calluna vulgaris, Zones 4-7). While heather cultivars can still be found at many garden centers and online nurseries, you may wish to avoid planting them. This species has been reported as invasive in the Northeast and parts of the Midwest. While it may not appear to spread around one’s garden, in wild areas, especially alpine, high-elevation, and coastal areas, heather has been documented as impacting the displacement of some native plants. Learn more about heaths and heathers.

How to Grow and Care for Friendship Plants Pilea involucrata

Stock flower (Matthiola incana), also known as gilly flower or hoary stock, is a hardy biennial plant that brings splashes of colour and a sweet and spicy fragrance to a cottage or informal garden. With clusters of blooms forming a frilly spire of petals and soft narrow green-grey leaves, it also makes a long-lasting cut flower. The species is native to southern Europe and has purple flowers, but many single- and double-flowered cultivars have been developed in a range of colours, from white and yellow through every shade of pink, to red and purple. Stocks attract pollinating insects to the garden.

How to Grow and Care for Philodendron ‘Brasil’ Philodendron hederaceum ‘Brasil’

A fishbone cactus is easy to care for, durable, and fast-growing which makes it ideal for beginners.

I often hear folks say that they hate heaths (Erica spp. and cvs., Zones 5–8) and heathers (Calluna vulgaris and cvs., Zones 5–8), their earlier blooming cousins. The most common complaints are the woody, leggy shape they develop (mostly after years of neglect) and how they outgrow the space they’ve been provided rather quickly. The same people who complain about heaths and heathers admit they have no knowledge of how to care for them (Learn all about caring for heaths and heathers here). But while these plants do need certain conditions and annual care, they are not divas. 

Rhipsalis is a low-maintenance, hanging house plant that’s perfect for beginners. Although it has no prickles, it’s a cactus and known as the mistletoe cactus. This may be because the tiny, white flowers that appear along its stems through winter into spring are followed by small, white or pale-pink berries or because its spineless foliage looks a little like mistletoe.