A Word in Your Ear About Heucheras......

Hi Sid this the one with dark red veins through amber leaves? Not sure how much you paying - here they re £2.50 for 6" pot size. Thought most heuchera propogated by division .

Hi Sid,
We found that our 'Palace Purple' have needed the 'shock treatment'. After about 3 years of growing them they became very leggy and lost their bulk and mass. We divided them last year and replanted them and they appear to be forming a reasonable set of plants again.Unfortunately we didnt have much success with Creme Brule. Im not sure if this is because our garden is a container garden, but they failed to do well although they were growing in good compost and in large pots.We also tried altering their location, but this didnt help to improve their growth in any way.The examples I have seen this year of Creme Brule for sale in the garden centres have not been particularly good so far.
Happy gardening and best wishes,
Grenville.

Hi Sarah...I had the same circumstance with my Purple Palace...(adore these plants) but the bunny in the backyard likes them even more than I do! I've started putting out lettuce and carrots and pellets to distract him/her hope it works...cause my H. Peach Melba got partially consumed by mice! There is also a var. called "Caramel" too.
when the crown diverges, I take a few and put them elsewhere...and mound some fresh topsoil around the remaining crowns.
The flower heads of PP are beautiful frothy things...a grouping in a bed looks like a pink cloud hovering over the irridescent/metalic leaves... as I said (adore these plants)
Lori

Well, I'm pleased to report that although I lost the auction (the plant eventually went for £6-ish), the seller got in touch and let me have one for £3.99 including postage. So I've got my plant!

Bonkers - Hi, not one with red veins. This had caramel coloured leaves with crimson bits. I'll post a picture when it arrives. Haven't seen any round here for as little as £2.50, but they should be coming down in price now me thinks - some varieties have been around for quite a while now. Re dividing the plants - I had a good look at my H. 'Purple Palace' and all the stems seemed to converge on a single stem and therefore couldn't be divided. I also have a Heucherella 'Rachel' (a hybird Heuchera x Tierella) and I think I can divide that one.

Grenville - sorry yours did not do so well. :-( When plants in containers die in my garden I usually blame it on vine weevil grubs. Did you examine the roots?

Lori - I know what you mean about Heucheras - I adore these plants too! There are some real crackers out there - I really want H. 'Ebony & Ivory' and, oh, loads others! Last year bought H. 'Velvet Night', which is gorgeous and I recommend it! (intense red with silver mottling). Hope the mice behave this year ;-)

Aww, I'm so glad you have got your plant.
In my experience gardeners who Ebay have been very helpful ( lots of after care advice) and generous ( supplying more plant material than auctioned).

This is my first e-bay purchase and I can see that I might become a bit addicted!

Another good heuchera is 'Obsidian' - really dark purple leaves.
'Amber Waves' is a poor grower and I've never got it through the winter in a border. Tried six different heucheras in pots last year and overwintered them in a cold frame - guess which was the only one infected with vine weevil? :-(

Hi Andrew - I don't think I've come across 'Obsidian' - I will look out for it. Two members have told me they've lost 'Creme Brule' through the winter, so I'm a bit worried about it now. But my other Heucheras seem to be going strong, so hopefully they like the conditions enough here to survive the winter - fingers crossed. Sorry to hear you've been struck by the dreaded vine weevil - I've only had problems with them in containers rather than in the ground, but I will keep an eye on my Heucheras now!

I have just joined! found this site through a heuchera search...It's great to find other heuchera nut's. It's taken me a few years of lost plants to discover they really do need to be devided. A job for the autumn. I hope we can keep the thread going. Anyone know of a dedicated site? I know hosta feinds have one Anyone know of a site? time to start one it not.

As usual I join conversations late in the day.
I have some wonderful Heucheras amongst them Marmalade, Creme Brulee, Key lime pie etc.,
Im glad I was warned about Creme Brulee and I will definitely over winter them under cover.
Ive never lost one yet.These are definitely my most favourite plant and I divide my plants at any time of the year when they look scruffy and Ive given friends loads of plants off of my ones.MOstly Palace purple I admit. Seems to be as tough as boots.
But Ive also split Key lime pie and Creme brulee with great success.
They are a fabulous plant and give something all year round.

I've found that Heuchera PP does well in the relatively extreme climate where I garden....I have Marmalade and thought I had lost it last spring to voles...but it survived and I transplanted it into a new area in the shade of a couple of viburnum along a pathway that I'm lining with Irish Moss... it took to it's new spot well but it's colour isn't as nice as it was in the other spot where it received more sun.. I started with one 4" pot of PP and now have five or six clumps of it between the front and back garden that are doing well... the new spot for Marmalade is more clayey, so that means I'll have to top dress with some sharp sand and compost... I give them a top dress every autumn and they seem to settle into it like a warm blanket and wait out the winter snow in some comfort...lol.

Thanks for the input Bertiesmum and Lori. I'm toying with the idea of leaving my Creme Brule out over the winter. I planted an Ajuga near it (the dark purple Ajuga really sets off the bright coloured H. CB) and the Ajuga has grown all around it, so I'm wondering if that will provide whatever protection the Heuchera needs? Not one person has told me that their Creme Brule has survived over winter, so it's a bit of a gamble. If we get really bad weather, then I think I'll put a cloch over it. Wish me and my Heuchera luck!

Incidentally, after writing this blog I took cuttings from my H. PP. as detailed, I just cut off the stems, stuck them in the ground and they've all rooted :-) Can never have too many Heucheras!!! :-D

Ok Sid will try that with mine up here and let you know .At least not far to bury them if they perish.

I think I like Ajuga almost as much as I do Heuchera...you're right about the colour too...and it seems to enjoy being cheek-by-jowl with spurge and violets...and the pretty blue flowers in the late spring/early summer puts the icing on the cake...I have a pic of violets entwined with PP...they are growing enclumped (such a word?)

First year with me for Ajuga - planted a little pot of it about May and can't believe how much it has spread. But it is stunning so I don't mind. I'm now trying to get it all around the pond to cover the areas of soil up under everything else. I'm looking forward to seeing the flowers in the spring. It had one flw when I bought it, but nothing since.

BTW - enclumped = defo sounds like a word to me :-D I think if 10 people start using a word then it can go in the dictionary? So if everyone on GoY starts using it - well it's BOUND to be a proper word, isn't it?! Together, we can change the world! x-D

LOL... power to the lexicographers!!

An enclumpment of lexicographers ;-)

Thats a great word Lori - you could start a blog ( well it was your word) for further designed gardening words and definitions.

I believe that's how the word 'quiz' entered the language. One night, someone went round Dublin(?), putting up the message 'what is a quiz?' everywhere. QED

Ok, Bonkersbon...I'll start that blog. I expect some contributions...so start thinking everyone...the language of gardeners is a rich and voluminous one...let's hear some favourites...

I cant believe it I was just browsing the internet and look what i just found
All this heuchera blog
Dont forget to cut them back hard now and again as this stops them from getting too leggy.
We recommend once or twice a year In the spring to show new foliage and get rid of all old and damaged leaves after winter, and August as they have time to put up new growth before the winter and they look neater for when they take over the dispaly throughout Autumn and Winter :) great for winter baskets also :)
My new favourite is fire chief this week any way lol
They are easy to propagate as you all said PP varieties only for your own garden dont sell at open gardens etc otherwise you will be doing what the intenet did for record and cd sales and killing your future new varieties
i love this site as you all know and was really pleased to find it up there.

Vicky snap just found this blog too, will cut ours down although it will break my heart as most of them look fairly good considering the awful winter, have also sprayed them against the caterpillars. Will have a look at Fire Chief have a new bed to fill!!!!

Hi Dottydaisy
If they still look really good just trim them and tidy up and cut later in the year.
Most peoples are lookking dreadful now.
Most of mine looked a mess so I cut them back but the ones in the baskets this time didnt need it so I just rooted out the bad and dead foliage and have watered and left them for now.
Remember DO NOT CUT INTO THE CROWN it can kill them!!! :(
Good to have done the caterpillar spray as they can become a pain.
I am in the middle of trimming and top dressing all the 'National collection' that we have at the moment It is taking me weeks lol
They are all in pots to make it easy to manage but there is 12 of some varities and we have 230 varieties in the collection. They are in anything from a 3 litre pot to a 10litre they are so heavy too !
Normally they would all be growning really well now but instead they have only just started to grow!
I am sure we will struggle for the first show at Cardif!

OMG 230 varieties, that is amazing it must take you ages..........when is the Cardiff show? I hope you get everything sorted by then, dont forget to show us the photos please.
Thanks for telling me about not cutting into the crown, the larger ones we have look ok, but I think we may have lost some of the small (new last year) Key Lime cannot see any sign of it.......are some more tender than others?

Key lime until it is older needs a bit of loveing care in the weather we had last winter.
If you have to replace the new lime maramalde is much stronger and should be able to tolerate some sun too if we ever get any the only difference aprt from the Lime marmalde being stronger is the flower colour your is pale salmon and Lime Maramalde is white.
Anyway I had better go and tidy up some more heucheras my back is killing me lol
But I can see the end of the very large pots now
Just eveything else to do next
:-)

Thanks Vicky.....will love you and leave you to get on.....take care of your back...mine is playing up too, all this cold !!!

Wow I have just discovered Heuchera and now found this blog... so girls and guys I'm looking to you for advice.
I have a sloping bank making a boundary between the lawn and a lower parking bay. I would love to fill it with a variety of Heuchera to give some all year interest but it is west facing and so gets the sun for most of the day. Will Heuchera grow there? If so what varieties would member recommend. There is what appears to be an old plant in one of the borders (we've only just moved here so no idea what we've got!!) but it looks scruffy and not very interesting has put up large flower spikes with white bobbly flowers (for want of a better description) The individual flowers don't seem to open up. Is this a Heuchera or something different?

Look under the leaves in pot grown ones for slugs/snails, mine plant looked quite unwell for a while until I found the slugs, removed them and all of them are back to normal. One pot was a very tall one, must have been a very determined slug

Just found this site for those of us hopelessly in love with heucheras:
http://www.heucheraholics.co.uk/ and thought I'd share!

I really love Heucheras! I planted 6 last year and they grew really well. Then the recent rain seemed to almost drown one of them even though it was near the others that didn't seem to be bothered. I decided to divided the drowned one to see what would happen - as yet nothing. I then got a notion to transplant some of my other plants around which led me to dividing 4 of the other 5 Heucheras. They all look really sad so I have trimmed off most of the leaves and I also found some rust on one of the plants so I removed the leaves (I think it was due to lack of air circulation). Everyone seems to say they are easy to propagate by division but I can't find mention of how long my plants will take to root and get over the shock of being divided and transplanted, more importantly how long it will take for the new leaves to come and make a nice looking plant. Is there a need for something to help them with the shock? I did amend the planting holes for better drainage and my clay soil is pants! I also dug up some sad looking Heucheras from my late father in law's garden as the house is being sold and I thought it would be nice to have some for my husband as he is H mad too and missing his dad. Unfortunately they don't seem to be very happy, they are in pots - any help would be great. They are very small and sad looking.

Don't know if this helps, but I grew Palace Purple very successfully from seed on ebay from bobtodd1 - I now have over 30 plants from one packet of seed.

I only recently found out that heucheras do not like the sun except the very dark leaved varieties. I am going to try growing some black leaved heucheras from Plantworld Seeds.