Gaultheria Winter Fiesta™ Wintergreen

Gaultheria Winter Fiesta™ Wintergreen is a broadleaf evergreen ground cover shrub offering year-round interest, blooming in late summer, producing berries fall and winter. Borne on orange red stems, small, waxy, downward-facing, bell-shaped white flowers are followed by huge, super-showy berries, which turn light- to cotton candy-pink as temperatures cool. The beautiful berries are highly uniform and appear from fall through spring, an important winter food source for birds. The plant has glossy leaves that can have a bronze flush and have a wintergreen fragrance when crushed.

A Gaultheria procumbens, commonly called wintergreen, American wintergreen, boxberry, spiceberry, or teaberry, Winter Fiesta has a slow growth rate and a low-growing, clumping, weeping habit. The plants spread by rhizomes and eventually form dense colonies. Shown to best effect when grouped or massed, wintergreens are typically grown as ground cover and are exceptionally attractive when allowed to gracefully cascade over hardscapes. It’s also a great container and garden plant, nice in beds and borders.

Cold hardy and easy to grow, wintergreen grows best in a sunny to sun-dappled location with humidic, well-draining soil, having an acidic pH, preferably lower than 6.5. The plant benefits from a yearly feeding with an organic fertilizer. Wintergreen grows well in areas with mild summer temperatures and average to high humidity; they may suffer in hot, dry climates. The plant is pest and disease resistant.