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Heliotropium arborescens, the garden heliotrope or cherry pie plant.
Also called cherry pie plants for their inviting fragrance, this old-fashioned summer favorite fairly glows with dark purple blooms. Attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies, and other insect pollinators, heliotropes are excellent container plants and are reliable bedding plants, too. Learn how to plant, grow, and care for heliotropes.
About Heliotropes
The heliotropes we grow in our gardens are most often Heliotropium arborescens or hybrids thereof.
Though considered a tender perennial shrub in their native South America, heliotropes are usually treated as an annual in Zones 1 to 8. Otherwise, they can get a bit stringy or loose-formed when grown for several years.
As annuals, they grow about 1 to 2 feet tall and wide and are mildly shrubby plants with colorful clusters of fragrant star-shaped flowers. They are heat lovers and will continue to flourish in hot summers.
What Color Are Heliotropes?
Traditional heliotropes usually have towering, deeply purple blossoms with dark green, deeply veined, and textured foliage.
Newer varieties may have lavender or white blooms and become bushy plants covered in tiny cherry or vanilla-scented flower clusters. Although not native, the clusters of flowers are a favorite of pollinators.
What Do Heliotropes Smell Like?
They are intoxicating! Many gardeners describe the flowers as having a sweet cherry-like scent (hence, why they’re known as cherry pie plants), while others describe a vanilla grape scent.
How to Garden With Heliotrope Plants
With their spreading nature, heliotropes make great bedding plants. They work well in mixed borders (placed at the front) and are also often used on slopes and hillsides.
Flower companions for heliotrope include black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), floss flower (Ageratum), geranium, alyssum, lantana, stock, saliva, and zinnia. You’ll have a garden with pollinators and hummingbirds!
Thanks to their lovely fragrance, heliotrope also works well in containers on the patio or deck, in hanging baskets, and in window boxes.
Note: All parts of this plant are poisonous, although a lot must be ingested to cause serious harm. It is especially toxic to horses.
Growing
Heliotropes like a consistent supply of moisture, whether in a pot or in the ground. When planted in the ground, use mulch to reduce soil drying. Container-planted heliotropes may need frequent watering. Water the soil directly from under the foliage to minimize fungal issues.
- Provide weekly water in the absence of rain. Heliotropes in pots will need watering as often as daily.
- While deadheading isn’t required, it will improve the appearance of your heliotropes. If they start to get straggly, give them an even haircut (pruning) to encourage more bushy growth. Flowering will resume shortly on the new growth.
- Fertilize container-grown heliotropes with a diluted fertilizer biweekly or monthly when watering. Those grown in the ground might not need extra nutrients if you added compost or slow-release fertilizer when they were planted.
Types
- ‘Augusta Lavender’ is a hybrid with light lavender blooms which transition to white with golden centers. Its mature size is about 2 feet tall and 2 to 3 feet wide; it is more heat-resistant than old varieties.
- ‘Alba’ is a white-flowering variety that forms a nicely mounded shape about 30 inches in all directions. It’s one of the most fragrant heliotropes, does very well in containers or in the ground, and exhibits more perennial tendencies than many other varieties.
- ‘Marine’ is the classic heliotrope look with deep purple clusters of blooms on a modest-sized plant. The vanilla fragrance, textured depth of foliage, and bloom color make this a favorite, and it’s easy to find in garden centers in spring.
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