All my heucheras survived the past several winters, both those in the ground and those I over-wintered in 1-gallon plastic pots on my breezeway. That statement includes both dark 'Palace Purple' as well as a no-name green-leafed variety I grew from seed via winter sowing. While I'm a zone warmer than your Z5, I'm located in north central CT and our winters are severe. I even had Baptisia australis/false indigo die back to the point it's barely showing this year but I blame that mostly on voles & devoutly hope it makes a full recovery. Heucheras have been happy little campers in my part shade beds ever since I planted them. I love their gorgeous foliage, leaf shape, color and reliability. I consider them an absolute necessity and mainstay in my part sun/part shade beds. The fact they're maintenance-free, and require nothing from me but admiration, makes them cherished specimens in the garden.

Ilovetogrow, Definitely try starting from seed. I wintersowed a bunch of Heuchera seeds I'd received in trades last winter, and I had excellent germination. They didn't put on much size, but I planted them out anyway, since I couldn't keep a container watered to save my children,LOL. I haven't tried to find them yet this spring. I think I'll leave the fallen leaves and pine needles in place to prevent rapid shifts in soil temperature for a while yet. I planted the seedlings in the same bed that I transplanted a group of Trillium into while I clear out some invasive ivy and lily of the valley. So, I'll be tiptoeing very gingerly in that area. I was amazed at the number of baby Trillium I found digging around. I had to carefully disentangle the roots of them from those of the non-natives. So, I hope they survived the transplant. I decided that was safer than spraying chemicals over a large area and hoping to avoid the Trillium. There are also Solomon's Seal scattered through that bed, but they sprout later in the season than the others, so it's harder to identify them. I'll have to decide soon how to deal with them. Oops. Guess I babbled a bit and wandered off topic. But, I will be including any Heuchera that I am able to acquire in that same semi-shade garden bed. Happy gardening! Martha

I have divided mine a few times just because I am too scared to lose it. I had 4 that died on me or peter out on me not too long after I got them. After reading they are supposed to be split every 2-3 yrs I lost my others because the main root had too many babies on them to sustain the life of the whole plant. So when some of my favorites look like they have too many "babies" I split them. I now have 40-50 babies that I have no room for plus I never even wanted that many(that's with giving my brother 12 last year!) The good news is now I have some to fall back on if one of my others die! But in the future maybe I might let my beautiful Dolce Licorice get as big as it was last year!

I've had good luck with one I bought recently - Heuchera 'Key Lime Pie' - a gorgeous chartreuse. I loosened the soil away from the crown and pulled off small divisions right at the crown (they didn't have any roots attached) - actually the correct term would be basal cuttings, I guess. Anyway, I trimmed each cutting down to just a couple of the smaller, new leaves. I stuck them just deep enough to stand up in a peat:perlite mix and rooted them under intermittent mist, though you could probably use a plastic cover in the shade - anything to keep them moist. Mine took about 3 weeks to root - I got eleven out of the twelve I stuck. I will plant them out in the garden next spring. The mother plant has now grown back to about the same size it was before I took the cuttings, so am going to do some more. Heuchera Palace Purple is one that will come true from seed - you might try collecting seed.