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| I'm a hard-core Heuchera fan and am always looking for new varieties. I would love to hear your favorites. I thought last year had some of the best new introductions to date. Here were some of my favorites last year: Heuchera 'Berry Smoothie' (not as bright as some of the pictures, but Wow!) Heuchera 'Shanghai' Heuchera 'Electra' (amazing red veins this winter). |
Here is a link that might be useful: Heuchera Berry Smoothie
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by nutmeg4061 5b (My Page) on Sun, Jan 30, 11 at 21:33
| Have you seen the new trailing or groundcover Heucherellas? 'Redstone Falls' and 'Yellowstone Falls'. I want to try the Redstone Falls in a container this year. |
Here is a link that might be useful: 'Redstone Falls'
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- Posted by coolplantsguy z6 Ontario (My Page) on Mon, Jan 31, 11 at 9:11
| I planted several although I don't remember which ones. :( I have an 'Electra', 'Fire Chief' and 'Sugar Plum' from last year to plant this spring, and I'm hoping to add 'Cherry Cola' and 'Root Beer'. The trailing Heucherellas do indeed look intriguing -- as do some of the newer trailing Tiarellas. Also, check out Heucherella 'Solar Eclipse' -- hello darlin! |
Here is a link that might be useful: Solar Eclipse
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| Nutmeg, Redstone Falls looks great! I'll have to try it. I have Tiarella 'Running Tapestry' which can be a bit weedy. Hopefully the running Heucherellas are a little more tame. Have you tried 'Southern Comfort'? I know it isn't new this year but I think I'm going to give it a try. It looks like an improved 'Caramel'. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Heuchera Southern Comfort
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Mon, Jan 31, 11 at 11:52
| The owner of the nursery I work for trials a lot of new Terra Nova introductions and last season he had 'Blackberry Crisp', 'Cherry Cola', 'Rootbeer' and 'Fire Chief', among others. Since I am drawn to the coppery colored foliage, I tried both Fire Chief and Rootbeer. Both did very well over winter - great coloring - and even stood up to some very cold temps (they're planted in containers). I'd recommend them. I've grown 'Southern Comfort' and I wouldn't necessarily consider it a replacement for Caramel. The leaves are huge compared to most heucheras and it goes through much more dramatic coloration than does Caramel. Again, a very nice plant but much more in your face than Caramel. |
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- Posted by nutmeg4061 5b (My Page) on Tue, Feb 1, 11 at 3:06
| Gardengal, then you`ll be drawn to this Heucherella, too. Another one at the top of my list, 'Brass Lantern', in the link. I can`t wait to see what the small Heucherella 'Stop Light' and Heuchera 'Tiramisu' that I planted last fall will do this year. |
Here is a link that might be useful: 'Brass Lantern'
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- Posted by coolplantsguy z6 Ontario (My Page) on Tue, Feb 1, 11 at 8:47
| Oooh, 'Brass Lantern' and 'Sweet Tea' are very cool. I planted the latter last year, and plan to plant the former this year. My understanding is that most have been somewhat disappointed with 'Tiramisu'. Anyone have a positive experience with this one? In any case, 'Electra' is similar and seems to be a big improvement. |
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- Posted by the_plant_geek z5 (My Page) on Fri, Feb 4, 11 at 15:11
| Tiarella 'Cascade Creeper' has been the most vigorous of the new creeping Tiarella from TerraNova. They are all nice though. The creeping Heucherella are quite nice, but it seems to take a bit before they start to creep. 'Tiramisu' only has red veins in the spring, then turns a chartreuse that isn't as bright as 'Citronelle' or other bright Heuchera. It's a fine grower, but color is a little disappointing. 'Electra' has red veins most of the season, although mine started solid bright chartreuse last spring and then got the red veining. This may be temperature related. I trialed H. 'Root Beer', and the color is much nicer than pictures led me to believe. 'Southern Comfort' is definitely not a sub for caramel as it has much larger leaves and is nearly twice the height. It has more orange coloration in shade than 'Caramel' which is nice, but seems more burgundy in sun which isn't so nice. Width is probably the same, my mature 'Caramel' is 24-30" wide. 'Shanghai' is quite nice, I like all of the new purple varieties so far. Purple is a fairly new color for Heuchera, as older varieties are some sort of burgundy. Like all of the city series this one blooms very well with white flowers. 'Brass Lantern' I trialed this year, and is another one that's nicer than the pics. 'Sweet Tea' needs light to achieve good color, it's a balance between too much and too little. Some new ones I've ordered for spring: The Plant Geek |
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- Posted by hostaholic2 zone 4 MN (My Page) on Sat, Feb 5, 11 at 21:17
| So far Southern Comfort has made it through one winter here, and I agree that the leaves are much larger than Caramel. I'm usually just happy to find a heuchera that will actually grow well here. Some have succumbed to our winters, others just did not grow vigorously and faded away to nothing over the course of 2 or 3 years. Southern Comfort grew well last summer and if it's still here this spring and looking good it will have "keeper" status. |
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| Plantgeek, did you order yours from 1 source? |
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- Posted by the_plant_geek z5 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 8, 11 at 3:14
| digginde- I'm in the industry as a retail grower, we get them from a few wholesalers. Hostaholic- most of the villosa hybrids should do well in MN provided proper siting and growing conditions. Also H. richardsonii and the couple of hybrids that exist with it in the background. Many other varieties will do well, but might need special attention paid to their growing conditions. Finished off my Heuchera series on my blog today, I attacked them by color class. I could have gone way more in depth, but I don't think I needed a book worth of info. That's what the Heuchera book by Dan Heims and Graham Ware is for. Next topic on my mind is new for 2011. Should be a busy week or two before I get to that yet. I have to find a new mystery plant as well. The Plant Geek |
Here is a link that might be useful: Heucheras at Confessions of a Plant Geek
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- Posted by hostaholic2 zone 4 MN (My Page) on Tue, Feb 8, 11 at 21:35
| Thanks for the link to your blog, very interesting. Perhaps I won't throw in the towel on heucheras just yet. |
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| Plant Geek I will have to check out your blog. Sounds like you might have some answers. I went crazy buying Hercs. for a few years and finally decided to back off they are too expensive for annuals. Tried them in part shade, part sun, added gravel for drainage and had to many die. I will not buy them unless I see them on sale at a very good price. |
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- Posted by the_plant_geek z5 (My Page) on Tue, Feb 8, 11 at 23:42
| Best place to start for growing them: Well drained organic rich soil with consistent moisture. This should be a coarser soil than woodland conditions. Aged pine bark or a mineral component (fine gravel, coarse sand, gypsum, perlite etc) helps with this. Morning sun, but be prepared to move plants if they have too much or too little light. Consistent moisture. I know I said this once, but it's important. They don't want to be dry, they don't want to be too wet either. Once the soil freezes in winter, use pine boughs or shredded leaves as a winter mulch. This protects the crown from dessication and prevents frost heave. Remove this once the snow melts in spring to prevent crown rot. Clean up the old foliage at this point. After this it's trial and error to find the varieties that work for you. Villosa hybrids are a good place to start. The Plant Geek |
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| Thanks PT I have a couple so far that have survived. At this point I have lost the names of some because I kept moving them. I lost the names. LOL |
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- Posted by hostaholic2 zone 4 MN (My Page) on Wed, Feb 9, 11 at 21:56
| Mine are under at least 3 feet of snow, most are in raised beds. |
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| These survived. I moved them so many times I am ot sure of names but I know one is Southeren Comfort and one is Caramel Someone asked about Tiramisu it is the 5th one down. I like the Spring colors.            |
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| OMG you guys !! Had no idea there were so many varieties. I just picked one up a couple years ago end of season on clearance(Palace Purple) and I love it. It's its second year and looks great already. That Berry Smoothie looks yummy !! Can see where they got the name. But where do you find all those other varieties (without spending an arm & a leg)? |
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| I have just gotten hooked on Heucheras in the last couple of years. I don't have any that are too unusual. I read several Heuchera threads here and chose some based on recommendations from you guys, and those are the ones I've been most pleased with: Amethyst Mist is amazing. I found them on clearance at Home Depot last year for $2 each, and since they came so highly recommended I got five and planted them around the base of a Japanese Maple. They have easily tripled in size since last year, and the foilage is very full and so healthy. In fact, they've gotten a little bigger than I expected - any bigger and I may have to relocate them! Stormy Seas was another I'd heard good things about from you all, and it's done very well also. Foilage not as striking as Amethyst Mist, but growth has been stellar as well. Southern Comfort does have enormous leaves, and mine has a bit of an open, floppy habit. Peach Melba were the first ones I bought, several years ago. The color is wonderful, but they're very small and haven't increased in size much. But they're hanging in there. My Caramel is shrinking. I bought a Georgia Peach this spring and have it in a pot with another Japanese Maple. So far it seems OK. It looks like it may end up open and floppy like Southern Comfort, unless it fills out a lot. I got Plum Pudding in a plant swap last year, and it's increased quite a bit in size. Oh...I've also had Autumn Bride for a couple of months. Looks like it will be big and hardy, but very plain green leaves. Amethyst Mist has turned out to be my favorite. I love Midnight Rose and Venus, but mine very quickly disappeared last year. :( |
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| Brit--You may want to try In The Country, they don't have a huge selection, but they are nice and have the best prices that I've found. The plants I've received from them are healthy. You'll want to order asap, their heuchera sell out pretty quickly. Karen |
Here is a link that might be useful: In The Country Garden & Gifts - heuchera
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| I will not pay more than 5.00 - 8.00. They have been iffy in my garden. I pick them up when online vendors have a sale my local nursery have sales and coupons. My favorite online is Santa Rosa Garden. They have the most reasonable price and they have a lot of sales send a good size plant. I have read that the villosa breed are stronger for heat and I am finding they are stronger in cold zone 5-6 also. I have been collecting those.... Frosted Violet |
Here is a link that might be useful: Santa Rosa Garden
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| Gosh Marquest...you amaze me with your memory of all the names. I still have to go get my little name stakes as reference when I ask questions on here....lol. Connie, I got mine at either HD or Lowes for $2 also. That's my kinda price. But $5 is good too, marquest. Thanks for the links (both marquest & tempelus !!) I'll definitely check them out when I have more time cuz I know I'll get hooked...LOL. Happy Easter !! |
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| Is there a forum for just heuchera, like they have for hosta or daylilies? Indyrose |
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| No special forum for Hercs. I do not know if that many people are really into them like Hostas. I love them but they are a hard plant to figure out what each one needs. It has been trial and error for me. I am trying fertilizing since it worked with Snow Angel. It was getting smaller and smaller. Last year I gave it some fertilizer and it started to perk up and this year it is bigger. Why I do not know when everything you read say not to fertilize them. I gave it a slow release fert. |
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| My Snow Angel kept getting smaller and smaller too. I moved it to where it now gets mostly full sun and it's making a good turn around. Must be it needs more sun than others with all of the white in the leaves. I think the question about a forum for heucheras gets asked several times every year and many would like to see one, I included. I love these plants almost as much as hostas and daylilies and I'm collecting as many as I can afford along with my other plant obsessions. I know there are some forums on here that see very little traffic and remain, I think a heuchera one would get a lot more traffic than those dead forums. Oh, and some heucheras I'm trying new this year are: 'Autumn Leaves' And heucherellas: 'Solar Power' Karen |
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| Karen - there you go like marquest, knowing all these names off the top of your head...LOL. I agree, there should be a forum cuz I remember last year stumbling across a post like this, where there's lots of love, talk, & PICS !! Where's y'alls pics?? Ya say a forum's been talked about, but has anyone ever contacted the Administrator and requested one to be created? Just asking... I'll do it, if not. Have you been collecting daylilies for long? So far, that's my biggest passion. This is my 2nd year. What do you have? Should we move this to the daylily forum....LOL. Marquest, on the off-chance, did a search for Heucheras on a site I already had pulled up for reference (for pics for daylilies) and your Citronelle was the only one that came up. But OMG, what a beautiful plant !! The color !! Bonnie
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| I'll get around to taking pictures of some of my heuchera soon. It's been so rainy and cold that several of them have been slow to wake up from their winter's sleep. As for daylilies, I started collecting them in 2007, 2008 I went crazy and bought a lot of them, and the years after I've only bought maybe a half dozen to a dozen new ones every summer, and though I don't know the exact total, it's somewhere around 150 cultivars, plus my three hundred or so seedlings I crossed from my plants. Hostas are quickly catching up in numbers with the daylilies, but the heuchera are much slower. I haven't had a whole lot of experience with them, not like daylilies and hostas, so my collection is being built up more slowly with them to see how they fair in my yard. They seem to be more hit or miss, some do well in my yard, others not so well. My yard is very wet in the spring and dry in the summer, and they don't really care for that. Especially this spring, the rain doesn't stop and my yard is a wet meadow. Karen |
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| Karen I agree I love the Heucheras but I have to collect them slowly. Each one want something different more light less light or just enough light. Fussy prima donnas they are just because they are so pretty. |
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| Link (at bottom) to some recent pictures of my heuchera/ellas. Some are bouncing back from dormancy faster than others, and I potted up some that were struggling where I had them. My favorite, Georgia Peach
Karen |
Here is a link that might be useful: My Heucheras
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| Peach Flambe was new to me last season, and truthfully - I was disappointed. The initial coloring was quite nice, but as the season wore on it was very blah. I was kind of hoping they would bite the dust, as the nursery has a one year warranty, but oh no - not liking them ensures their survival, doesn't it :p I have been *thrilled* with Citronelle. Was a hot one 'round these parts two years ago, last year went looking for more and was tough. Did manage to snag a few more, and just love them - a bright limey-yellow color that really brightens shade. My favorite is "Plum Pudding" - a very strong grower for me. "Green Spice" has done well for me, too. I've tried other cultivars over the years and have lost quite a few - they peter out over time, but PP, GS, and Citronelle are excellent performers for me and I definitely recommend them. |
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| In answer to the question about Tiramisu, above: I have both Tiramisu (3) and Miracle (4), which are extremely similar. I was very disappointed that they did not retain the red coloring they had when I bought them, but then, this spring, suddenly all the newly emerged leaves are nicely colored. If I had to choose between the two: Miracle wins. Bigger, healthier, and the green color (when NOT tinged with red) is brighter. Tiramisu does not seem as vigorous, and the color is paler. I had to move Miracle last summer when constructing a new patio. It did not miss a beat, even with being temporarily planted in a holding bed in the sun for a month. Miracle spent the summer a nice bright yellow green, an acceptable color; whereas Tiramisu looked faded and sick. Neither one showed any fall red coloration, like they were supposed to do. I have had both now since the fall of 2009. |
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| I thought I'd bump this thread. Yesterday, I was at the local Home Depot. I noticed a huge very dark Heucheras in nice pots (about 1.5 gallon). The name was not familiar to me - 'Binoche'. When I got home, I googled it and to my surprise it turned out to be a new intro, under a patent. And, it is a villosa, so it will probably do well in our MD heat and humidity. Very happy with this purchase. This 'Binoche' thing looks MUCH BETTER than its pictures online. Huge, bold color, very impressive. |
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