'Kramer's Rote' from Highland Heather in Oregon. It has been blooming since mid December. I have seen the flower and flower buds of various E. X darleyensis cultivar survive down to 0F...surely the most freeze resistant flowers in general cultivation. It's a shame these are so unfamiliar to most gardeners in the mid-Atlantic region, at least.

very interesting. although I am not a Heather fan, I do feel enthusiastically similar about several other species and am interested in rare/obscure hybrids.

I am in the PNW and have noticed heathers in some front yards in an older neighborhood. I assume it's either people with money that can afford more specialized nurseries, or they have more specialized tastes in plants. The climate here remains cool much of the year, yet the winters do not go too much below freezing. There is a short hot dry summer period.

very interesting. although I am not a Heather fan, I do feel enthusiastically similar about several other species and am interested in rare/obscure hybrids.

I am in the PNW and have noticed heathers in some front yards in an older (more upscale charming) . I assume it's either people with money that can afford more specialized nurseries, or they have more specialized tastes in plants. The climate here remains cool much of the year, yet the winters do not go too much below freezing. There is a short hot dry summer period.

I just got an order from Karla at Heaths and Heathers, who sadly is winding down operations. 😔 As with so many specialist US nurseries that have closed in the past 10 years or so, there's not even a question of whether someone is going to replace them. Even if you look at something that appears to be relatively good shape: conifers for example. You can still get various firs grafted onto Abies firma, but nobody is doing the broad swath of straight species grafts that Don Howse of Porterhowse was doing. I KICK MYSELF for not ordering the whole lot of them when I had the chance. And I bet he would have been happy to try to graft Lawson Cypresses onto C. obtusa, unlike the lame response I recently got from another PNW nursery.

" I just got an order from Karla at Heaths and Heathers, who sadly is winding down operations. "

I'm rather distressed to hear this. There is no indication on the website that operations are altering.

There are certainly plenty of growers around so no shortage of your standard heaths and heathers. But if they do close, we could miss a lot of rare or less common varieties that only a specialty nursery would carry. And that seems to be a repeating phenomenon....it is the vendors of rare or collector plants that are rapidly disappearing.