All mountain laurels - kalmia - absolutely require a planting medium that is extremely porous. They cannot stand excess moisture around their roots and the roots need an abundant supply of oxygen - this latter is really what people mean when they talk about "good drainage". Plant above grade unless you have very sandy or gravelly soil naturally. Water at least weekly if there is not abundant rainfall for the first two years. Burlap or other winter wind protection is a good idea for the same period. Once established, kalmia are very trouble free,

do they have any need for an acidic soil .. ??? ..

or is pH in general a potential issue????

ken

Based on personal experience and where the silly things grow in the wild, they are much more tolerant of lime than rhododendrons and other things like that. However, they may have more general climatic issues, like an aversion to hot nights.

On the other side of the Hudson, about an hour south of here, there are many, many limestone cliff faces liberally adorned with mountain laurel. That's the land of caliche - one of the few places it's found outside of Texas.

In the fall of '07 I planted two Little Linda and two Tiddlywinks Kalmia. Three of them are planted in raised beds in a very sandy loam that I had trucked in. The fourth one is planted in my native soil which is more of a clay loam. Two are in almost complete sun, one is in 1/2 - 3/4 sun and the fourth one got about 1/2 day sun. I say "got" because I'm pretty sure I've lost this fourth one this year. I know they are not suppose to be in so much sun but being zone 5 may help, well, that and I make sure they stay hydrated without overdoing. I haven't looked at the tag yet to see if it's the Little Linda or the Tiddlywinks. I suspect the water holding capacity of my native soil was much greater than it liked (obviously I overdid this one LOL). They do like their soil on the acidic side.

The death of the one aside I really do like them. IMO they give me quite a bang for the buck. They stay very small, they are evergreen and they flower like crazy and are almost no maintenance.

Alexis did you winter protect yours? Thanks for all the great feedback so far!

A couple of mine are in full sun here in zone 6 (not 5), and they're doing great.

Mine is in partial sun in as soon as the Sycamore/Plane tree leafs out. But it is Evening sun. Think that should be fine?

Hydrangeasnohio,

Other that putting down some mulch I don't winter protect any plant I have. In my yard it is survival of the fittest. I figure in another 10 years when I'm really slowing down going out each year and putting protection on is more than I'm going to want to do.

Mountain laurels need acidic soil to survive. I believe the person that was maybe the 3rd or 4th to comment was referring to Texas mountain laurel which is a different plant than the one that grows here in the East.