Heather. However do you rejuvenate an Erika?

pagepark

I've a prolific flowering old heather. The green and flowers are on top of old bare stems. I'd like to try dropping it after it finishes flowering. Any advice about this please 

Fairygirl

What do you mean by dropping it?

They really need an annual light trim to stop them getting woody though. You can sometimes renew them by layering viable stems and creating new plants.

steephill

It won't regrow if you cut it back to the bare stems which is why a light annual trim is the best way to keep them in shape. One solution is to literally drop your plant - dig out your plant, make a much deeper planting hole so that the bare stems are buried and fill with ericaceous compost. This is effectively whole plant layering.

Fairygirl

Ah - I wasn't sure if that was a misprint re dropping @steephill
I've done similar with dianthus, but not heathers of any kind.

Liriodendron

It does work with heathers - I've done it - and you get roots developing on the buried stems, which means (as @steephill is suggesting) that you should get a lot of new plants from the old one.

Blue Onion

Does it work the same if you hill up/mound the dirt over the center of the plant?  

Pete.8

I have 2 heathers that got really old and woody and it worked for me too.
I dug a hole big enough so that only about 6" of the top of the plants were visible and filled the hole back in. That was about 5-6 years ago. It certainly rejuvenated them.

I've not tried heaping soil around the plant. I guess if you could keep the heap of soil around the plant and keep it watered it may work.

Fairygirl

I'd think it would work @Blue Onion but would be trickier.
Perhaps if you could make a physical barrier round the plant to back fill, that would be easier to manage?

Valley Gardener

This is so interesting,Ive been wondering if I should dig mine up an throw away,but dig up and bury deeper is a great idea!  Dropping.....yeah!