About Us

Hi there! We are Jane and Paul Murphy, and we run Hickory Hill Heath and Heather, a small nursery in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, specializing in heaths and heathers suited to the mid-Atlantic region. We love the variety of foliage and flower color that these plants provide year-round.

After seeing heather at Longwood Gardens in the early 90’s, we fell in love with it and started growing heath and heather, wanting plants that would provide year-round color for our Newark, Delaware home. Shortly after, we joined the NorthEast Heather Society to learn more about heather. We do not have formal training in horticulture; ours is the result of hands-on learning.

Jane & Merlot in the garden, and Paul at a show in PA

At a NorthEast Heather Society conference on Cape Cod, we attended a hands-on heather propagation demonstration. We were hooked. We built a small greenhouse in our Newark, Delaware backyard and began propagating plants for our ever expanding heather beds. Along the way, we determined that many cultivars will prosper in the mid-Atlantic region if given the right growing conditions.

We retired in December of 2006, and made our dream of starting a heath and heather nursery a reality. In Spring of 2007 we opened Hickory Hill Heath and Heather in Oxford, Pennsylvania.

One of the heather gardens at our home

Summer in the heather garden