heuchera

Wow I’m BAD. I run the Green Thumb Sunday meme and I haven’t done one since last November. Yep, bad bad bad meme creator!

Ok it’s time to get back on track. This meme is still alive … barely, but I know some of our members are still posting Green Thumb Sunday posts regularly, at least more regularly than I have been lately.

I don’t have a good excuse for my absence. As usual I haven’t been feeling well thanks to my Crohn’s, but yes, I’ve still been gardening and so far this year I’m amazed with my garden. I just need to start posting about what I’m seeing and doing more often, now don’t I?

So … if you’ve been participating in Green Thumb Sunday or waiting around to see if it was going to start up again … come on, let’s see some Green Thumb Posts. (please).

As I said above I’ve been amazed with my garden this year. I think it started waking up in February … way way early! By March 15th I had my first Crocuses blooming. Usually they don’t bloom until near the end of March.

This was the first crocus to bloom in my backyard this year. It bloomed on March 15th! Shortly thereafter more and more crocus popped up. They’re all done now though.

Years ago when I first started gardening I planted Snow Drops .. but I rarely ever saw them. Either they bloomed too early for me to notice or it warmed up to fast and they faded within days … unnoticed. It was obvious this year that they’ve been growing, multiplying and thriving as I had a few large clumps come up in March.

I even had a few tiny Dwarf Danfordia Irises come up too

They’re a little faded in this photo as they were already wilting by the time I noticed them. They didn’t last long. We’ve had some warm weather in March and April which wasn’t all that good for making Spring flowers last.

Here’s a shot of my center garden bed … full of red and white Tulips, Heuchera, Astilbe, perennial Geranium, and tiny shoots of Phlox and Hostas and probably a few other plants that I’m forgetting … I took this picture on April 18th. I just wish that I’d pushed the hoop that I use to contain the Phlox when it grows down a bit before I took the photo!

This is a wide shot of my garden. It’s small, but for the middle of April there’s a heck of a lot of plants up. All of my roses have fully leafed out now and more and more plants are coming up each day. Right now I’ve got Daffodils and Hyacinths that are just about finished blooming and I think my Glories of the Snow are pretty much gone. I have a feeling that I’ll have roses about two weeks earlier than usual this year too.

And Finally this is my dog, Midnight, enjoying some sun in the garden. She’s growing and blooming too. She’s two and a half years old now and still very puppy like in a lot of ways … just thankfully not quite as hyper as she was a year or so ago! LOL

How is your garden doing? What’s blooming? What’s growing?

Heuchera – Easy to grow and So lovely in the Garden

by Tricia

Don’t you just love the look of Heuchera 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

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.

Coral Bells

by Tricia

Heuchera micrantha commonly known as Palace Purple

This is a seed-grown strain, rather than clonal cuttings, so the plants vary wildly. Growing them in light shade seems to protect the foliage from burn, and on some of the superior forms, the flowers make a light, airy effect that is highly appealing.

Palace Purple does not seem as prone to develop woody stems that need to be divided as frequently as some of the other heuchera types, although this varies widely by plant.

This lovely, often purple foliaged plant grows to 12-18 in.. When planting space 24-36 in. Coral Bells are quite hardy, and should thrive in USDA zone 3a – 8b. Coral Bells prefer to be in a shady to partial sunny spot. The blooms that spring up on tall stalks are white or off white.

Coral Bells bloom from late spring to mid Fall, and blooms repeatedly. The folliage is deciduous and should not be covered with mulch in the winter or it may rot. Heuchera has average water needs and should not be over watered.

Propagation can be achived by collecting the seeds from the dried blooms. Sow the seeds indoors before the last frost and plant out in the early spring after the last frost has passed.

Just about every day something new is blooming in my garden

Heuchera – Easy to grow and So lovely in the Garden

Coral Bells

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