Photo: Austin Pursley, CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Carolina Bog Laurel

Kalmia carolina

Also called Carolina wicky, Carolina bog myrtle, Carolina sheep laurel, Kalmia angustifolia var. carolina.

Clusters of small pink cups ringed in red in April and May, on a low evergreen laurel of Southern bogs and wet pine savannas.

RareShowy flowersEvergreenTolerates wet soil

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 1–5 ft
USDA zones: 5–8
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, sandy barrens, swamps and wet flats
Native range: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Carolina bog laurel is a low, colony-forming evergreen of the Southeast's bogs, pocosin edges and wet pine savannas, from southeastern Virginia to Georgia, with a few mountain bogs. It is the southern form of sheep laurel, and some botanists treat the two as one species. Georgia lists it as threatened, and NatureServe ranks it imperiled in Virginia and extirpated in Tennessee. Unlike our mountain laurel, it bears its flowers along the stem below the new shoots, and its leaves come in threes. Plant it in sun on wet, sandy, acid ground at the edge of a bog garden, where its pink clusters open in spring.

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as slow, like our mountain laurel, about a foot a year. It is an erect evergreen shrub 1 to 5 feet tall and 3 to 6 feet wide, rarely over 6 feet, spreading by suckers into colonies.

Clusters of 4 to 12 pink cups, rarely white, open in April and May along the stems below the new shoots. Each is a quarter to half an inch across, with a ring of red dots inside. The minute, winged seeds ripen in capsules in September and October and scatter on the wind.

It grows wild in the coastal plain and Sandhills from southeastern Virginia to Georgia, and rarely in mountain bogs. Its home is shrub bogs, pocosin edges, streamhead ecotones and wet pine savannas.

How to grow Carolina Bog Laurel

Carolina bog laurel grows best in full sun and takes part shade. It wants a moist to wet, sandy, acid soil, like the bog edges and wet pine savannas where it grows wild. Set plants 3 feet apart and keep them 3 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in spring or fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch with pine needles, clear of the stems. The seed is minute and needs no chilling. Sow it on the surface of moist peat at room temperature, uncovered, in good light. Tests of sheep laurel, its northern form, found no dormancy, and the seed of our mountain laurel needs light.

Keep the soil moist through the first two summers. It spreads by suckers from the base into a colony. Prune, if at all, right after bloom, since next year's flowers come on old wood.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and its ten anthers sit in pockets until the weight of a bee springs them. Carolina bog laurel sets fruit with its own pollen as well as a neighbor's, so one plant bears seed alone. No significant pests or diseases trouble it. Every part is highly toxic if eaten, so keep it away from grazing animals and small children.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (9)