landscapeTOP
Heuchera is a great go-to perennial, not so much for the tiny flower spikes but for the gorgeous leaf colors. They can work as focal points, garden bed filler or groundcover, and they are beautiful in planters. Oftentimes, foliage is essentially evergreen in our warmer winters, though old leaves may need to be removed in the spring. It’s deer resistant, too. New cultivars seem to be introduced daily, much too many to keep up with, offering an incredible array of leaf color and pattern choices.
Some heuchera species are native to Kentucky and some are native to other parts of the United States. Having local native parentage generally means that the plant will be more suited to our soils and climate.
Here are the two Kentucky natives whose cultivars are available in great array at garden centers:
Heuchera americana, also known as alumroot or coral bells, is common in our moist woodlands and rocky limestone outcrops, in part shade or shade. Note the heart-shaped leaves, usually with five rounded lobes. This is a spring bloomer.
Heuchera villosa, hairy alumroot, is also found pretty much statewide, in the same habitat as alumroot. How can you tell them apart? The common name gives us a clue. Look for hairy stems and flowers. This is a late summer bloomer.
And here are two U.S. (but not Kentucky) natives whose cultivars are also commonly available. Heuchera micrantha, also known as crevice alumroot, is a western native from British Columbia south to California. It is very shade and drought tolerant. Heuchera sanguinea (coralbells) is native to Arizona and New Mexico.
Cultivars with H. villosa in their parentage are considered to be more tolerant of our hot and humid summers. While parentage information can be helpful in choosing plants for your garden, many garden center tags don’t provide this information. Sometimes you can find out about parentage online, but with all the hybridization going on, the parentage of some cultivars is uncertain.
It’s fair to say that, in general, heuchera appreciates some afternoon shade to protect it from our blazing July sun. Many even do well in that difficult environment called dry shade. If you want to try them in a sunny spot, even moisture is essential.
Leaf color is the big draw:
Purple foliage: H. americana “Obsidian” is noted for its dark purple to almost black leaves. H. americana “Plum Pudding” features large, shiny, silvery, plum-purple leaves with dark-purple veining. H. micrantha “Palace Purple” is an old standby, one of the first purple-leaved heucheras.
Bronze foliage: H. villosa “Bronze Wave” has shiny bronze to red-brown foliage and makes a lovely shade groundcover. It is drought tolerant and does fine with root competition. H. americana “Crème Brulee” has peachy-bronze leaves.
Apricot or peach foliage: H. villosa “Caramel” has glowing, apricot-hued foliage. H. villosa “Georgia Peach” has very large, peach-colored leaves that turn a warm rose-purple in the fall and winter.
Green foliage: H. villosa “Autumn Bride” has big, fuzzy lime-green leaves with long plumes of white flowers. H. Americana “Green Spice” has broad green leaves with a silvery overlay. H. sanguinea “Splendens” is noted for its round, lobed, long-stemmed green leaves.
A plant that is in the same family and is somewhat suggestive of heuchera is Tiarella cordifolia, or foamflower. This is a clump-forming native shade perennial that spreads by runners. Foliage is evergreen in mild winters, sometimes turning reddish bronze.
You will see heucherella at the garden centers. This is a cross between tiarella and heuchera, and is often written as “X Heucherella” to indicate that cross. Heucherella has the amazing colors of heuchera and the incised, dark-patterned leaves of tiarella, considered by some to be the best of both worlds.
The straight species are also very beautiful though not as showy. Planting the straight species is better for our local ecosystem, since our insects evolved with these plants.