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Heuchera – Easy to grow and So lovely in the Garden

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Don’t you just love the look of Heuchera leaves?

Heuchera Purple Palace leaves

Heuchera Purple palace leaves

They’re so colorful. I have heuchera’s growing in shady places in my garden, even below other plants that are in otherwise sunny areas. For example I’ve got coral heuchera growing underneath our ornate Japanese maple tree. The branches drop down almost to the ground so they shade the heuchera from the sun. (the green behind the leaves is astilbe – not weeds!)

Heuchera also bloom. If you grow them you’ll have seen them in bloom in June or July. Flower stalks sprout up from the leave plant by the score. I’m certain some of my plants put out 50 to 100 flower stalks!

Heuchera Amethyst mist in flower

Heuchera Amethyst Mist in flower

I guess I grow three types of Heuchera. The Amethyst mist and Purple palace that I’ve shown above and the coral one that I can’t remember the full name of right now … it’s leaves are coral and gold, very pretty.

I think most heuchera are fairly hardy. I believe all of mine are hardy to zone 4. They are easy to grow as long as they have enough shade and if they are covered in mulch in the winter it must be removed early as they have a shallow root system and they can fail to come out of dormancy if they are buried too deep or left in very damp conditions. This last bit is knowledge gained from personal experience. In the winter the only plants of mine that have ever lifted from the ground when it thaws have been my heurchera’s, so watch for that too.

I also love to say the word Heuchera. LOL if you say it forcefully it kind of sounds like someone being sick. Huecccccccheeeeeerrahhhh! See what I mean? Yeah, I’m a nut – a gardening nut.






Submit your posts to Thoof and gain site visitors!

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a site called Thoof. Did you visit the site? I think Thoof is a great site. You can read the latest news on the site in the form of blog and website posts that have been submitted to the site, and the Thoof system remembers what you’ve clicked on in the past so when you visit the site articles that Thoof thinks will be of interest to you are shown on the front page. In this way Thoof can very easily become your very own personalized news website.

As I said when I posted about Thoof a couple of weeks ago, you can submit your own posts and articles to the site. It’s really easy to submit and when you do you’ll start to see new visitors coming to your site to read the full story. A number of bloggers that I know have been submitting their articles regularly and they’ve been quite happy at the traffic that they’ve been getting from Thoof.

The creators of Thoof have even created a new badge called the ThoofRank badge. When you submit one of your articles you’ll be given the code for the ThoofRank badge that you can then place in your post. The ThoofRank will let you and your visitors know how popular your story is on the Thoof site. Cool huh?

Speaking of Thoof. Ever since I heard of Thoof.com I’ve wondered how they came up with that name. I even searched the site to see if there was any info on how the name came to be Thoof but there isn’t.

I have an idea of how the site was named. I think that the creators of the site were sitting in a room talking about what they should name this current news community. On the table in front of them were bowls of peanuts, and various fruits to snack on. I can picture one of the site creators leaning forward and grabbing some cherries to eat, but when he bit down on one of the cherries one of his teeth cracked! In horrendous pain he said “Oh my thoof, my thoof!”.

The others deep in conversation about the name of the site didn’t understand what had happened and as he kept repeating Thoof and pointing to his cracked tooth they thought the name Thoof was a suggestion for the site name. Since the person with the cracked tooth was being so enthusiastic they took a vote right away and that’s how Thoof got it’s name.

What do you think? That’s the only way I can imagine how Thoof got it’s name.

Hey, don’t forget to submit your gardening posts to Thoof! They definitely need more garden related stories there.

It’s a hot one!

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Oh my gosh. I’m just in from being in the garden for about an hour. I went outside to take some photos of flowers that have already been blooming for a week or two. You know how it is, if you don’t get the photos while they are blooming they’re gone! I already missed a few flowers that don’t re-bloom due to my lack of being in the garden much this year.

It is soooooooo hot outside! It’s apparently only 30 Celsius, but as always it’s pretty humid here and when you factor in the humidity it’s 39 c! That’s 102.2 F! I also happen to have a fever, as usual, so I’m sure my body wasn’t handling the heat and humidity as well as it should have.

When I came in I was literally soaked as if I’d been out there in the rain. Yuck. You can bet I hopped into the shower pretty quickly. I still feel overheated though.

I’m so thankful that we have air-conditioning. I know that I’ve said we have a fairly green lifestyle, but when it gets this hot here in the summer I don’t think I can easily give up my air conditioning. Hopefully all the rest of the stuff we do makes up for it.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that some more photos will be on their way shortly.

Hey let me ask you a question.

Do you like it when I post facts about the plants I photograph such as their hardiness, bloom times, whether they are drought tolerant and or like shade or sunlight?

I figure it helps those that are just getting started gardening. Plus if you haven’t tried growing a particular plant at least you’d know by reading the information that I post about each plant I photograph if it would do well in your area.

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