The purplish and/or silvery heucheras look nice with the bluish lungworts such as Pulmonaria Excalibur or May Bouquet. They also match well with Japanese Painted Fern. The lime-colored heucheras look well wherever you can use a spot of bright foliage contrast. Mine are tucked around the base of my many clematis vines, providing root shade for the clemmies and a nice pop of color against the dark green vines. The amber colored ones look nice with yellow edged hostas, my favorite combo being Heuchera Marmalade with the apple green (with warm cream-yellow edges) of Hosta Fragrant Bouquet. This combo definitely needs quite a bit of shade to keep the colors of the hostas from bleaching out. Another great hosta to use with amber heucheras is the upright vase shaped Hosta Regal Splendor. This is a big fast growing hosta with a "regal" presence in any garden. Other somewhat taller plants that work well with heucheras are Astrantias & Aquilegias (columbines), both of which have nice flowers as well - small bractish buttons of deep reds to whitish pinks for the Astrantias and many spurred and spurless blooms in many colors for the columbines. In my garden these both bloom in spring but at slightly different times, the columbines first, then followed by the astrantias. I use both A. Hadspen Blood & A. Ruby Wedding, both nice reddish ones, along with an unknown white (seedlings)& the double Nora Barlow columbine with my purplish heucheras. Toad lilies (tricyrtis) with their tallish arching stems and late fall flowers also combine well with heucheras.

This is getting very interesting, Heuchera villosa is a west coaster I agree that I was incorrect about them being a North Carolina sub var., however variety 'arkansana' is found in the Ozarks and var. villosa in the souther Appalachian Mountains two hundred miles away. I though anyone from Ark. would find that one interesting, The Ozarks go from a Zone 7 to Zone 3, am I correct in saying that?. Also I see here Heuchera villosa var. mycorrhizal can look almost like micrantha. In strengths and weakness it is stated that H. micrantha is intolerant of hight heat and humidity well that shots us in the foot as southerns, but on the other hand H. villosa is tolerant of heat and humidity so what about that heterogeneity. If it does lives we have a real winner and I would want the plant sooner then later. Thanks for this very interesting post, it has been the most thought provoking one I have read. Please correct my errors if you see any, it's all in the case for greater understanding. To emphasize on one point, his cultivar came to us from France, France is not like Dixie, when it come to heat and humidity by a long shot.

Hi Sarah, BABY SEEDLINGS: Congratulations on the 'birth' of your little green shoots. If you are using lights, be sure to keep the lights so close to the plants that they almost touch one another. That will keep your seedlings from stretching for light, getting leggy and falling over and dying. PLANTING SEED POTATOES WHOLE OR IN PIECES? You can plant potatoes just about any way you want. Some people swear by one method while others swear by another. A lot depends on the size of your seed potatoes. If they are about ping pong ball size, I'd tend to plant them whole. If they are tennis ball size, I'd cut them into two or three pieces, depending on where the eyes are. If they are significantly larger than tennis ball size, I'd cut them into as many 2" to 3" pieces as I could while making sure each piece has a viable eye or two. TO SPROUT OR NOT TO SPROUT? Sprouting them inside is optional. Most years, you'll get a good crop either way. If you have very well-drained soil or extremely dry soil, I don't think it really matters because they are going to sprout in the ground as long as they get adequate moisture. On the other hand, if you have very slow-draining soil that holds excessive moisture for a long time, or if your soil is very wet at planting time, pre-sprouting them lessens the chance that the seed potatoes will rot (cold soil + excess moisture = potato disaster) before they sprout. Another way to decide which method would work best for you is to look at your seed potatoes and see how many eyes they have. Each eye that sprouts will produce foliage above ground and set potatoes, but if you plant whole seed potatoes with a lot of eyes, each sprout may be too crowded and less productive than if you'd cut the potato into 2 or more pieces. So, if I had 6 eyes on a relatively small potato, I'd cut it in half with 3 eyes per half, if possible. HOW TO PRE-SPOUT YOUR SEED POTATOES: When I was a kid, this was called curing or green sprouting. Purchase your seed potatoes at least a week before you're planning to plant them, and I prefer 10-14 days. Cut your seed potatoes into the appropriate-sized pieces containing the appropriate number of eyes. If you've had disease issues in the past, you might want to put some garden sulphur in a paper bag, add the cut pieces, and shake the bag to coat the seed potato pieces. I don't usually do this unless it is a wet year because I don't tend to have a lot of soil-borne disease issues, but some people wouldn't think of starting potatoes without sulphur. Place your cut seed potatoes in a well-ventilated box or crate, or on a surface lined with several layers of newspaper. They'll sprout best if you can put them in an area that has good ventilation and high humidity. If you have to put them in an area that has low humidity, create some humidity by placing a couple of containers (buckets, pans, whatever) of water near the seed potatoes, but not so close to them that someone could kick them over and drench your seed potatoes. Of, if you have burlap or some similar material that is fairly thick and holds water well, wet it down and lay it on top of the seed potatoes. Check every morning or evening and keep it damp but not sopping wet, as needed, but remove the burlap at once if any sign of mildew or mold appears. In a mild, humid environment, your seed potato eyes should begin to sprout while at the same time, the seed potatoes shrivel lightly. The cut surfaces of the seed potato, if you have cut them, should be slightly healed over, which is a good thing because slightly healed cuts are less likely to become diseased once they are in the ground. HOLDING SPROUTED SEED POTATOES: Sometimes rain falls when you least need it--perhaps the day before you're going to plant your sprouted seed potatoes. Should this occur, don't worry about it. Sprouted seed potatoes can be held for an extra few days as needed until planting is possible. You should try to plant in slightly moist soil but never plant in very wet, soggy soil. If you're in a part of Oklahoma that has poor soil moisture due to the expanding drought conditions, water lightly about 4 or 5 days before you're going to plant so your soil has some moisture at planting time. Potatoes in extremely dry soil at planting time will not grow well until they begin receiving some moisture. Do you know how to plant in a trench? If not, let me know and I'll give you a brief description of it. Dawn

While the pics don't look like the "damping-off" disease I have seen check these symptoms to see if they fit your situ... "Symptoms of Damping-off: Seeds may be infected as soon as moisture penetrates the seed coat or a bit later as the radicle begins to extend, all of which rot immediately under the soil surface (pre-emergence damping-off). This condition results in a poor, uneven stand of seedlings, often confused with low seed viability. Cotyledons may break the soil surface only to whither and die or healthy looking seedlings may suddenly fall over (post-emergence damping-off). Infection results in lesions at or below the soil line. The seedling will discolor or wilt suddenly, or simply collapse and die. Weak seedlings are especially susceptible to attack by one or more fungi when growing conditions are only slightly unfavorable. Damping-off is easily confused with plant injury caused by insect feeding, excessive fertilization, high levels of soluble salts, excessive heat or cold, excessive or insufficient soil moisture, or chemical toxicity in air or soil. Above ground symptoms of root rot include stunting, low vigor, or wilting on a warm day. Foliage of such plants may yellow and fall prematurely starting with the oldest leaves. The roots of a diseased plant will have some shade of brown or black and evidence of water-soaking. Healthy roots are fibrous appearing and are usually white or tan in color. These symptoms are easily confused with severe mite, aphid, scale infestations, or root-feeding by nematodes or insect larvae. Environmental factors such as accumulated salts in the soil, insufficient light or nitrogen, potbound roots, cold drafts, etc. can be eliminated only by examination of the roots." I have learned to spray seedlings with a bit of hydrogen peroxide mixed in the water to help prevent damping-off. Just moisten the top layer of soil while seedlings are young - later begin to water from the bottom. Apparently it is the moisture on top of the soil which contributes to damping-off. Once the damping-off appears I don't think there is anything that can save the plant. HTH