How to grow ling heather

We're a friendly lot. I am probably the most ignorant of the lot but my enthusiasm hopefully makes up for my lack of knowledge. I don't believe I've ever seen a gorse bush. Read a lot about their presence in reading mysteries (GKC) and scifi (Jules Verne) but never actually seen one. Do they give something back?

 

How have you not seen gorse, it's a small prickly shrub , mainly grows on common land/hills in this country .
It has yellow flowers and flowers all year.
It's a really good source of pollen for honey bee's .
There's some in my avatar pic.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Curly.

Lori, as her username suggests lives in Canada so may not have seen Gorse.

This is gorse Lori. It self seeds everywhere and the thorns are lethal. I have some in my garden at the moment. It smells lovely when it's in bloom, similar to cinnamon or almond I would say.

 

Thanks sheal I did wonder if Lori was in Canada
That's some serious gorse you have there I like the photo.

 

Oh my @Sheal we haven't got those beauties here. I was also astonished at the size of the Rhododendrons along the side of the railway tracks. So beautiful. Our flowers aremjust as pretty but the shrubs are dwarfs compared to yours.

Guess I can use our harsh conditions to cover for my being a perrenial newbie gardiner

 

Up until two years ago I lived on the Isle of Man where the pictures were taken. Gorse runs riot there and also in Ireland.

Lori there are no Rhododendrons in the second picture of the dis-used railway track. The yellow is Gorse.

 

It is running riot here on the Shropshire hill's to. The only way to control it is by burning it where it grows, did they do any burning on the Isle of Man @Sheal

 

@Sheal I didn't Segway very well on my thread. The rhododendrons I saw along the rail tracks when I was over there travelling about and had lovely deep violet flowers. I didn't see any gorse along the tracks that I travelled. No yellow.

 

Yes they did Curly and obviously it was controlled burning because it catches alight so easily. On a rare occasion in a warm summer something would set a wildfire going up on the hills where it was particularly difficult to control it. Along the roads it was hacked back by mechanical hedge cutters.

 

Not a problem.

The purple Rhododendrons grow wild and are gradually getting out of control in England. Gorse is rarely seen in southern England and generally blooms late winter to late spring. Up here in the Highlands there is very little Gorse but wild Broom (Cytisus) is in abundance and also yellow in colour. It blooms later than Gorse from spring through to summer.

 

Gorse is fairly common in Kent
And the last time I looked I was in Southern England.
It often grows along motorways, even on the cliff tops around the coast, does well on thin dry soil.
Its flowering like crazy at the moment.

 

It grows down here, in Devon, quite well. You can generally find some of it in flower whatever time of year it is. "When the gorse is out of bloom then kissing is out of fashion"

 

I've heard a slightly different version of that Nigel

 

Thanks for the correction Pete and Nigel. I was reared in Essex but rarely went to Kent or the south-west. In fact the only yellow we used to see there were fields full of rape plants.