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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.






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.

I can’t catch up with the garden work

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I’m so behind in my garden work. I think I’ll finally have the summer work finished when autumn hits.

As I’ve said before I just haven’t been feeling well enough to get into the garden daily, sometimes not even once a week. I almost don’t dare walk in the garden as I see all the work that needs to be done and if I’m not up to doing it, it tears at me.

On Sunday we got some work done in the garden. My husband was out weeding the front boulevard flowerbed and he put up these 1.5 foot by 1.5 foot bamboo type fence things in front of the flowerbed where it meets the sidewalk. It looks good.

Over the last two weeks in my two or so garden work visits I’ve managed to plant all the roses that I purchased in June, one honeysuckle – why did I buy two? I’ve already got a dropmore!, a hydrangea, and two clematis vines.

We had purchased three new passion flower vines. Those I did not plant. I kept them in the containers they came in and placed them where I could make the vines grow on an object (bird feeder pole) or fence. I have to bring the passion flower vines and other tropical plants indoors once it gets cool so there’s no point in planting them.

We still need to put down the composted soil that we recovered from our composter a couple of months ago, and we haven’t even put mulch down on the flowerbeds yet. See I’m behind.

Are you behind in your garden work too?

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