Heucheras – now a vast and
colourful ‘army’ by Sally Gregson
PLANT PROFILE
These days there are so many new and different heucheras available they even have a fan club. And they do look very good in a winter container with some strong-coloured pansies, or a clump of the bronze grass, Carex buchananii. The softer colours co-ordinate better with the silver Carex ‘Frosted Curls’, and pastel blue and purple winter pansies.
In the garden the copper-leaved forms bring sunshine to the winter months planted beneath red, orange and black dogwoods (Cornus alba). Some clumps of Bergenia ‘Overture’ added to the mix with its ox-blood red winter leaves and screaming magenta flowers in spring create a sensation in our garden.
Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’- one of the original hybrids
Of all the recent plant introductions, it has to be the increasingly vast and colourful army of heucheras, x heucherellas and tiarellas that are making the greatest impact on our gardens.
In little over a decade the choice has grown from just one or two hybrids such as the once ubiquitous Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’ to just over seven columns of listed varieties in the RHS Plant Finder. And that’s just the heucheras. There are hundreds more x heucherellas and tiarellas that have found their way into our nurseries.
Many of them originated in the Terra Nova Nurseries in the USA where about 15 years ago the legendary Dan Heims and Ken Brown started hybridising around 60 species native to woods and forests from Vancouver to Mexico. They bred and selected not just for colour and texture, but for hardiness. Some of the earlier selections proved not to be all that tough. The first coppery brown-leaved variety, ‘Amber Waves’ was a breakthrough but proved eventually to be a little tender. They recommended lifting the plant in the winter or keeping it in a container in a cold greenhouse until the spring. ‘Amber Waves’ has been superseded by hardier cultivars such as ‘Caramel’ which, planted in the ground here, survived last winter’s freezing temperatures without turning a leaf.
x Heucherella ‘Kimono’ pewter-grey, fingered leaves like a Japanese acer
The paler-leaved varieties need a little shade to prevent their leaves from scorching, and these too, have some good companions: forget-me-nots are true-blue against H. ‘Lime Rickey’; preceded in early spring by clumps of blue scillas, and followed in autumn by bright blue gentians. Or plant them among grass-green ferns such as Polystichum setiferum ‘Pulcherrimum Bevis’ and bluebells.
But it is the cross with tiarellas that has produced some of the most useful plants in the horticultural canon. The offspring, x heucherella, combine the colours of modern heucheras with the shade tolerance of Tiarella wherryi. This native of the high, deciduous woodlands of the
We offer an outstanding range of homegrown plants, including our specialist range of Agapanthus. They are looking at their best in mid summer so visit then to enjoy an unbeatable range of old and new varieties. Lavender & Heuchera are also a speciality.
High St, Beaulieu, Hampshire SO42 7YR Tel 01590 612307 or visit
www.fairweathers.co.uk
12 Country Gardener
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56