Anyone have experience/success w/'new' fancier heucheras?

15 years ago

I would LOVE to have a few more heucheras (coral bells) for their fancy foliage. But I have read that many of them just die out easily...or are not vigorous. Does anyone here in our area have any experience/success with growing some of the newer varieties? All I have is Palace Purple I believe. It is nice (I use the foliage for my bouquets). I so much want to find some other colors/variegated varieties that people in our zones have had GOOD success growing over a period of a few years or so.

They are too expensive for me to have to treat as annuals!

Thanks! :0) Phyl

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Comments (5)

party_music50
15 years ago
I grow a lot of heuchs -- but I wouldn't consider them "new" if I've been growing them for a few years. Every year they flood the market with the latest craze heucheras...

As far as dying out, sometimes you can just get a weak specimen -- or give it a lousy growing spot. I bought 4 Peach Melbas two years ago, and only one of the four isn't growing great.

I grow several Heuchera cultivars, and I've only ever lost two. One (Lime Ricky) was almost dead-on-arrival in an order from Park's and it didn't survive, but I've heard of others having problems with it. The other was a 'Marmalade' that I bought two years ago in late autumn from a local nursery. The cats kept digging it out of the ground and eventually it just didn't survive. :) (so animals would be another reason for them dying out. lol!)

I can comment on some that I have though, so FWIW, I *LOVE* Peach Melba! such beautiful bright colors!!! and Key Lime Pie really stands out. For dark ones I adore Obsidian and Licorice. Amethyst Myst is a really pretty purple, Green Spice is awesome (but not when in bloom), Creme de Menthe, Regina, Plum Pudding, Peach Flambe, Silver Scrolls.... all very pretty. Then there are several that are pretty but very similar to others, like Stormy Seas, Purple Petticoats (the leaves are great, but the colors make it look like others from a distance), Dale's Strain (nice green and prominent veining like Green Spice, but the veins aren't that nice dark purple of Green Spice). You probably get the idea...

There are more I'd like to get at some point: I don't have any of the white variegated ones, and from what I've heard I'd opt for Hercules over some of the others. I don't have any minis, or any with red flowers, or any of the "caramel" colored ones (like Caramel, Ginger Ale, etc.)

They all do best for me when they don't get too much sun.
hammerl
15 years ago
I have lime rickey and never had a problem with it. I forget what its companion heuchera is, might be plum pudding, but whatever it is looks great, even better than lime rickey. I bought mine from the Buffalo botanical gardens.

I have a variegated one that I'd have to look up the variety, and it does really well. Just got a caramel one, haven't overwintered it yet.
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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
15 years ago
I have a couple of caramel ones that I grew from seed.

I don't know if they are still available, but a few years ago, Parks sold a couple of heuchera seed mixtures. One was a 'flower' mixture and the other was a 'foliage' mixture. For a couple of bucks, it was a very worthwhile experiment.
phylrae
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for all the responses! On the perennial forum there were so many people complaining about the newer heucheras dying out.
I went to Hafner's (a pretty big local nursery) today and found a planter which had one each: Peach Melba, Key Lime Pie and Licorice, with a tall spiky plant in the middle. I brought it home, and hope to find decent places to plant each individually.
We'll see! :0) Phyl
jerome69
15 years ago
i have the palace purple,that is self seeding. i have about 5 in pots but have not any space to put them. i don't know how many to put in one pot. i have putting 2 or three in each pot.any ideas?

Anyone have experience/success w/'new' fancier heucheras?

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party_music50

hammerl

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Anyone have experience/success w/'new' fancier heucheras?

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party_music50

hammerl

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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)

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