Heather (White) Meaning

White heather signifies one’s wishes will come true.

Although it is always believed that you can make a wish upon a star, you can actually make your wish come true with a flower too – through the white heather.  You can also give this flower to a friend who is yearning for something – whether regarding financial or relationships. Once your friend gets the white heather flower, he or she will know that whatever he wished for will soon come to fruition.

It’s also about protection from danger.  To ensure that their homes were safe, people back in the day used to tuck heather flower under their beds and thatched their roofs with this beautiful flower.  And while in a long journey, you can wear a charm made of heather to keep you away from harm’s way!  This can be worn around the neck, on the hair or even tied to the button hole of your jacket or blouse.

• Name:  Heather (White)
• Color:  Heather does not only come in shades of lavender but it also come in pure white.
• Shape:  Heather, up close looks like tiny bells.
• Fact:  Heather has long been associated with rugged rural poverty.  That’s why for most of its existence, it’s been a despised plant.  People didn’t want to be thought of as poor so heather stayed pretty much where it grew - on the hillsides.
• Poisonous:  Most of the species of heather are nontoxic.  For exotic species, however, you need to exercise care when handling these flowers.
• Number of Petals:  Whether white or lavender, heather flowers have four petals.
• Victorian Interpretation:  White heather stands for wishes coming true. It’s also deemed as a plant of protection.
• Blossom Time:  July is the month for white heather.  These plants continue to produce flowers until the end of November.

Superstitions: 

Because it’s a plant is believed to provide protection, people used this as a charm.  If people didn’t carry these flowers around with them in their homes, it’s most usually that their beds are stuffed with heather or their roofs are thatched with heather.  It is said that if heather is burned - it can cause rain to fall.  White heather also made it possible for witches to fly on their broomsticks much faster.

• The Shape: Sprigs of heather put together looks like a small broom with little white pieces sticking out from it.  On its own, a white heather sprig will look like a bottle brush with some cotton stuck on its bristles.  The flowers are actually shaped like a bell drooping from the stem.
• Petals:  The petals of white heather look different in its stages of growth.  When it’s still in the process of forming buds of flowers, heather has long and elongated buds sometimes with black dots on its tips.  As a bloomed flower, the petals are shaped more like bells.
• Numerology: The flowering evergreen of white heather is number 11 in numerology.  This relates to the symbol of wishes and dreams coming true. 
• Color: Heather has two main shades, white and lavender.  It would depend on the color of heather what meaning is associated with it.  For white heather, this signifies protection.  It also symbolizes that one’s wishes will soon come true.

Herbalism and Medicine:  

If whole sprigs of heather are used as brooms, it’s the flowering parts that are used as medicine.  Heather can be dried and mixed with tea to help with depression or bouts of insomnia.  It can be ingested to help with stomach problems.  To make a heather infusion, a tablespoon of shoots have to be steeped in hot water.  To make a decoction, four tablespoons of shoots should be boiled in water.