Heuchera Haul

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Clockwise from top left: 1. Front door pot arrangement complete with 'Silverlight' 2. 'Green Spice' 3. 'Lime Rickey' with grasshopper 4. 'Ebony & Ivory' flower 5. 'Key Lime Pie' 6. 'Ebony & Ivory' 7. 'Obsidian' 8. 'Liquorice' 9. Mislabelled - should be Green Spice & Key Lime Pie, but nothing like them!

Heuchera are valued for their foliage, providing year-round border edging interest in the garden and in a wide variety of colours from the lightest, zingiest green to the darkest, almost black. They provide a perfect foil for the other, more showy plants, as well as being of interest in their own right. Visit any show garden or nursery display at a garden show and I can pretty much guarantee they'll be there, working really hard to ensure top marks. However, you don't need to confine them to your borders - they look equally good and at home in a large pot.

I hadn't heard of Heuchera until I came to plant up my new borders in 2000. I read about them in Gardeners' World magazine whilst the garden's hardscaping was being done and was instantly hooked. I love their foliage and variety of colours. My local garden centre had a big display of them at the time and I was like a child in a sweet shop and had to stop myself from buying the lot. Whenever I visit a show, I have to repeat the mantra 'I haven't got room for any more Heuchera' many times as I go round. However, I often come out of my trance a few hours later and find at least a couple of them are in my arms waiting to be paid for. How did that happen? At the last count I had over 20 of them in my front and back garden borders. Plus a couple in pots. Oh and another couple of them in the nursery area waiting to be planted out.

I think their flowers are beautiful too. They're usually a deep red (hence their common name 'Coral Flower'), pink or white. Each flower is tiny, but there are hundreds per stem, making a frothy, see-through display about 2 foot high in the border. A close-up view reveals their beauty and bees love them too. The flower stems can be cut back in the autumn, or left until spring to create some additional winter interest in the garden.

Heuchera are easy to look after - they do have a reputation of easing themselves out of the soil, but that hasn't happened so far in my clayey garden. If it does happen to you, then just firm them back down again. This may also provide the perfect opportunity to split out chunks of the root to make more plants. Some of the foliage can get a bit ragged in the winter, but trim this out in the spring and you'll be rewarded with lots of new growth. They're happy in sun or shade, though the amber coloured ones can get a bit washed out looking in a very sunny position. They like neutral or slightly alkaline soils and can withstand drought, even though their preferred position is in a moist, but well drained soil. They're mainly pest free, though the dreaded vine weevil can be partial to them - the usual treatments available should cure this problem.

Whilst I do love Heuchera, I don't think all of them are successful in my garden. I find the paler, more gingery forms take a long time to get established (if they survive at all) and I'm not really a fan of their colour anyway. This is Creme Brulee - I quite like the darker leaf shown here, but the majority of them are the paler colour as shown in the picture's background, which I don't like at all. What do you think? The newer Peach Flambe is meant to be a lot better, but I'm still to be convinced.

What's the favourite plant you use for foliage or year-round interest?