General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Shrub
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun to Partial Shade
Partial or Dappled Shade
Partial Shade to Full Shade
Water Preferences: Mesic
Dry Mesic
Dry
Soil pH Preferences: Very strongly acid (4.5 – 5.0)
Strongly acid (5.1 – 5.5)
Moderately acid (5.6 – 6.0)
Slightly acid (6.1 – 6.5)
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 3 -40 °C (-40 °F) to -37.2 °C (-35)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 8a
Plant Height: 4 to 6 inches
Plant Spread: 6 to 12 inches
Leaves: Evergreen
Fragrant
Broadleaf
Fruit: Showy
Edible to birds
Fruiting Time: Late winter or early spring
Late summer or early fall
Fall
Late fall or early winter
Winter
Flowers: Showy
Fragrant
Blooms on new wood
Flower Color: White
Bloom Size: Under 1"
Flower Time: Late spring or early summer
Summer
Underground structures: Rhizome
Uses: Provides winter interest
Groundcover
Will Naturalize
Edible Parts: Leaves
Fruit
Eating Methods: Tea
Culinary Herb/Spice
Raw
Resistances: Drought tolerant
Propagation: Seeds: Self fertile
Stratify seeds: 1 to 2 months cold moist treatment
Propagation: Other methods: Cuttings: Stem
Layering
Other: Stem runners usually rooted at intervals
Pollinators: Bumblebees
Miscellaneous: Tolerates poor soil
Monoecious

Image
Common names
  • Wintergreen
  • Eastern Teaberry
  • Checkerberry
  • Teaberry

Photo Gallery
Location: Alpine Garden Society show, Hexham UK
Date: 2022-03-26

Date: c. 1800-05
illustration by P. J. Redouté from Duhamel's 'Traité des arbres
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-06-28
close-up of flowers of plant in big pot
Location: Bea’s garden
Date: 2023-04-04
Location: KALAMA WA
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: my garden, Gent, Belgium
Date: 2009-07-04
Location: my garden, Gent, Belgium
Date: 2009-03-03
Location: Bea’s garden
Date: 2023-04-04
Location: Southern Maine
Date: 2018-07-30
Location: Southern Maine
Date: 2017-10-26
Location: Bea's garden
Date: 2022
Location: Tennessee

Date: August
credit: John Cameron
Location: Pacific Northwest, zone 8
Date: Feb 18, 2012
Photo taken at Al's Garden Center, Woodburn, Oregon
Location: Smith College Botanical Garden
Date: 2012-01-02
Location: Copenhagen Botanical Garden, Copenhagen, Denmark.
credit: Dryas
Location: Bear Creek, Pennsylvania
Date: 2016-09-14
wild plant in northern PA
Location: Western Washington
Date: 2017-12-04

 Courtesy Outsidepride
  • Uploaded by vic
Location: Southern Maine
Date: 2020-03-06
Deep burgundy color in winter.  Part shade location.
Location: Farmer Johns Greenhouse, Farmington Hills, MI
Date: 2010-06-28
Location: My garden in N E Pa. 
Date: 2014-10-10
Location: my garden, Gent, Belgium
Date: 2009-07-04
Location: Pacific Northwest, zone 8
Date: Feb 18, 2012
Photo taken at Al's Garden Center, Woodburn, Oregon
Photo by sedumzz
Location: Bedford, Virginia (Outdoors)
Location: Bedford, Virginia

Photo courtesy of Singing Tree Gardens Nursery
  • Uploaded by Joy

Photo courtesy of Singing Tree Gardens Nursery
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2013-10-24
year old specimen, after nursery bought, planted in big pot
Location: Cranesville Swamp Natural Area, West Virginia | May, 2023
Location: Michaux State Forest Fayetteville, PA
Date: 2021-08-03
Location: Alpine Lake, West Virginia | May, 2023
Location: Alpine Lake, West Virginia | May, 2023
Location: Southern Maine
Date: 2017-10-26
Location: Farmer Johns Greenhouse, Farmington Hills, MI
Date: 2009-04-16
Location: Farmer Johns Greenhouse, Farmington Hills, MI
Date: 2009-04-16

Photo Courtesy of Lazy S'S Farm Nursery.
  • Uploaded by Joy

Photo Courtesy of Lazy S'S Farm Nursery.
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Date: 2019-06-24
Photo by sedumzz
Location: Swallow Falls (And Muddy Creek Falls), Maryland | May, 2023
Location: Bedford, Virginia (Outdoors)

Photo courtesy of Singing Tree Gardens Nursery
  • Uploaded by Joy
Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-06-28
specimen in big pot
Location: Indiana  zone 5
Date: 2016-05-21
Location: Indiana zone 5
Date: 2014-05-06
Location: Cranesville Swamp Natural Area, West Virginia | May, 2023
Location: Alpine Lake, West Virginia | May, 2023

Date: 2013-03-03
Location: Farmer Johns Greenhouse, Farmington Hills, MI
Date: 2009-04-16
Location: Maine
Date: 2014-10-02
Growing wild
Location: Farmer Johns Greenhouse, Farmington Hills, MI
Date: 2010-06-28
Location: Farmer Johns Greenhouse, Farmington Hills, MI
Date: 2010-06-28
Location: Farmer Johns Greenhouse, Farmington Hills, MI
Date: 2010-06-28
Location: Tennessee
courtesy Sunlight Gardens, www.sunlightgardens.com
Location: National Botanical Garden (DC) | November 2022
Date: 2022-11-26

Photo Courtesy of Lazy S'S Farm Nursery.
  • Uploaded by Joy

Courtesy Gardens in the Wood of Grassy Creek
  • Uploaded by vic
Comments:
  • Posted by SongofJoy (Clarksville, TN - Zone 6b) on Mar 14, 2012 1:32 PM concerning plant:
    Found in dry or moist acidic woods of eastern North America and south to cooler elevations in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, Wintergreen is a common evergreen ground-cover well-known for its fresh wintergreen smell when the leaves are crushed.

    Growing only 6 inches tall, this creeper has dark, broadly-oval 1 inch leathery leaves that turn reddish in cold weather. It has solitary, nodding, white urn-shaped summer flowers that are followed by bright red 1/2 inch berries that may remain on the plant from late summer through the following spring.

    Give Wintergreen good, organic, well-drained, acidic soil and shade. The better the soil, the more quickly it will spread. (Sunlight Gardens)
  • Posted by Marilyn (Kentucky - Zone 6a) on Aug 27, 2013 3:33 AM concerning plant:
    This is the state herb of Maine.

  • Posted by ILPARW (southeast Pennsylvania - Zone 6b) on Dec 24, 2018 4:55 PM concerning plant:
    The generic name of Gaultheria was named after a Canadian botanist and physician of Dr. Gauthier of the 18th century. This Checkerberry Wintergreen or Teaberry is native to southeast Canada, New England down to coastal North Carolina to eastern Tennessee back up the Appalachians, and around the Great Lakes growing in acid soils of bogs, swamps, dunes, barrens, rocky slopes, and upland woods. Some are sold at many conventional nurseries in the eastern and midwestern USA in pots, grown over in the gentle climate of the Pacific Northwest at nurseries there, and some are also sold at native plant nurseries. It is one of those fussy plants that only grow well with a porous acid soil and a sheltered, shady location. I planted one in a tube with two dwarf Blueberry shrubs where I amended the potting soil with an acidifier mix from a commercial bag of sulfur & iron sulfate and had the pH about 5 to 6. My wintergreen died on me one severe winter when I should have covered it with burlap to shade it and some mulch to protect it better. I had it about 5 years. Beautiful, lovely broadleaf evergreen plant! Its waxy, white flowers are borne about mid-May to mid-August. It holds its red fruit that are really berry-like capsules from July to the next April. This species was the original source of oil of wintergreen used in liniments, and crushed leaves give off the fragrance. (There are about 170 species of Gaultheria in moist temperate regions and some mountain areas of the tropics all over the world, being evergreen shrubs.)
Plant Events from our members
lovesblooms On February 24, 2018 Seeds sown
winter sown
lovesblooms On April 24, 2015 Obtained plant
antsinmypants On March 2, 2023 Seeds sown
WS several.
SuperHappyCamper On February 9, 2023 Obtained plant
Purchased from Pike's Nursery.
» Post your own event for this plant

Discussion Threads about this plant
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Mitchella repens by sedumzz Mar 30, 2022 5:28 AM 0

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