FALSE HEATHER (Cuphea hysopifolia)

 

False Heather is our tropical substitute for real Scottish heather.  It has that same low bushy growth with the purple haze appearance.  It has been around for decades in Hawaii gardens and usually used for edging.  A year or so ago I was looking around a nursery for something with color but low growing for a large low container I have near the kitchen door.  The container has a solar light standing in it so I needed something that would not cover the light that shines towards the doorsteps.  I ended up buying three 4" pots of False Heather for the first time and am pleased at how they quickly filled up the container.  After several months I did need to give them a trim, but the plant quickly recovers with new fresh growth.  Overall, the plant choice was a good one and it makes a nice display.  What made me absolutely delighted with the False Heather was to see all the honeybees it brought into the garden.  I had no ideas that False Heather was a pollinators plant, but I have recently learned that honeybees like purple flowers.  I really enjoy watching the happy and busy bees collecting their pollen in the sunshine as I walk past.

False Heather is native to Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras and, like many of the plants from that area of the world, it belongs on my tough plant list.  This is an easy care, not fussy, plant. It does like to have good drainage, but it will tolerate poor soils and periods of dry weather.  A bit of feeding and watering will make it happier though.  In the tropics it can be treated as a perennial, but it does get a bit straggly over time so that changing out the plant every few years will improve your gardens appearance. False Heather can grow up to 2 ft high so could be used in a very low hedge.  An occasional trim helps the growth stay low and full.  

Usually, the flowers are purple but there are different varieties sold with colors going from white, lavender to dark purple.  It does spread out so that if you were using it as an edging it needs at least a foot space between plants. I have not noticed seed pods on my plants, so it was a surprise to find a few baby plants springing up underneath the first planted ones.  I guess the seeds are tiny, but I was happy to pot up the new free plants.

Aloha