Mugshots: 9 Heucheras

I am excited to post what will hopefully be the first of many 'Mugshots' postings. When a plant in a catalog catches my eye, I often turn to the internet to find more information about it. How does the plant perform for other gardeners? What color is it really? How does it stack up to the other similar cultivars available? I can't offer much wisdom about growth habits, as all of my heucheras are less than two years old. But today I'll share pictures and information on the 9 heucheras (coral bells) I have growing in my yard. All of these are best grown in moist but well-drained soil with morning sun and afternoon shade.


1. June Bride
This plant is quite similar to the standard coral bells growing in your grandmother's garden, except the flowers are white. The name may not be completely accurate, as plants in warmer climates would probably begin blooming in May or even April. Mine has plenty of buds that will open near the first of June and would be lovely in a bridal bouquet. My plant is growing in mostly shade, so a plant growing in full sun would be more compact.


2. Patricia Louise
Here is another cultivar with plain green leaves, though this plant sports mid-toned coral-pink blossoms. The picture above shows three of the various heuchera bloom stalks from my garden. At the top is white Lime Rickey, burgandy-cream Prince of Silver is in the middle, and Patricia Louise is on the bottom. Don't you hate it when blogger rotates your picture and you can't figure out how to fix it?


3. Autumn Bride
And here the bells toll for my second bride of the year. Autumn Bride is a H. villosa cultivar, which makes it more drought tolerant and especially good for shady areas where tree roots suck up most of the water. As it is a new arrival this spring, I haven't seen the creamy flowers yet. But they're supposed to arrive in the fall and should make nice fillers for floral arrangements during a season when cut flowers can be hard to find in the garden.


4. Lime Rickey
Now we come to a heuchera grown for its foliage instead of flowers, though the flowers are dainty and white. The leaves start out a lemon yellow and become lime green in summer. I love the way this plant glows in the shade and plan to use it amongst various gold-patterned hostas in the shade beds that will eventually grace my garden.


5. Green Spice
This heuchera also sports white flowers, but its leaves definitely steal the show. As the season progresses, the burgandy color becomes less noticeable until the leaves appear just silvery-green. This is definitely another great choice to light up the shade.


6. Prince of Silver
Here we have another case of rotating-picture-angst. Please imagine that the stems are growing upward on this gorgeous plant. It's currently my favorite heuchera, which is why I included another leaf shot at the top of this post. The rich burgandy undersides of the leaves contrast beautifully with the silvery tops when the leaves dance in the breeze. This and all my other purple-leafed heucheras develop cream flowers on burgandy stems.


7. Plum Pudding
This baby plant is quite similar to Prince of Silver except the leaves have even more burgandy in them. The new leaf pictured will become more silvery with age. Last week I cut leaves from both Prince of Silver and Plum Pudding to wrap around tiny bouquets, and they were lovely. I'm excited to use them around white roses in nosegays this summer. Very striking!


8. Palace Purple
Here is the grande dame of all the purple-leaved heucheras. It doesn't have the fancy ruffles or silver overlays of newer cultivars but is still useful. My plants have a greenish tinge but will soon become deep plum purple. I believe this plant was purchased in a 4" pot for $3 at Home Depot last year.


9. Chocolate Ruffles
This plant was a no-namer brought home from Lowe's last week, but it looks like the picture of Chocolate Ruffles on Terra Nova's website. Aren't the ruffles fun? No post on heucheras would be complete without mentioning Terra Nova Nursery, as they are responsible for many of the new and exciting heuchera cultivars available today. You can see that I'm not growing any of the orangey cultivars, as they don't appeal to me. And I'm sticking mostly with white or cream flowers. The vivid pink and red flowers that I've seen on other heucheras aren't a good fit with my garden's color scheme. As new cultivars continue to be introduced, no doubt a few more heucheras will join my garden gang.

Spring 2009 Mail Order Experiences: Part II

I always enjoy the instant gratification of coming home from my local nursery with a large, healthy plant in tow. But the pleasure of anticipating a coming order of plants by mail is also delicious. Most nurseries ship early in the week so the plants can arrive for weekend planting. That makes Thursdays and Fridays exciting. What will show up this week? When will the UPS man finally ring the doorbell? The excitement is tempered by the realization that the plants will probably be dormant or smaller than at the nursery. But when my nursery doesn't have just the cultivar I'm after, I consider mail order plants a worthwhile investment and well worth the required patience.
In this post I will continue reviewing the last five mail order nurseries from whom I have ordered this spring. Click on the bold nursery name to get to their website. See my earlier post for reviews of David Austin Roses, Regan Nursery, Park Seed, Garden Crossings and Heronswood.


1. Bloomin Designs
Ordered: Sagae, June, Great Expectations and Earth Angel hostas
I had to wait to write this post until my hosta order arrived from Bloomin Designs this week. Getting a few hosta divisions from a friend this month picqued my interest in the fantastic hosta cultivars available now, and hubby really likes hostas. That was enough encouragement for a trip to the local nursery to buy a few (High Society, Francee Williams, Orange Marmalade) and to place an order to Bloomin Designs for others that my local nursery didn't carry. The order, pictured above, arrived in good condition with moderately sized plant divisions (see 'Sagae' pictured at the top of the post). This is my third order from Bloomin Designs. I'm drawn by their large selection of daylilies and hostas and reasonable prices, and I've also been pleased with the service I received.

2. White Oak Nursery
Ordered: Smoky Mountain Autumn and Autumn Wood daylilies.
White Oak Nursery specializes in perennials, including a large selection of daylilies and hostas. I turned to this nursery because they carried 'Smoky Mountain Autumn', a daylily that I was convinced I needed thanks to the glowing description in the Oakes Daylily catalog. I wasn't ready to spent $40 for it, though, so I was pleased to find that White Oak carried the plant for just $8 each (I ordered two). I also ordered two Autumn Wood daylilies, also for $8 each. The plants that arrived for SMA were half the size (2-3 fans each) of the AW plants (5-7 fans). I wonder if SMA is a slow grower. Anyway, I planted my two SMA's together and made three decently-sized clumps out of the AW's. Hopefully I'll post pictures of the blooms later in the season. I have no complaints about my experience with White Oak, and I'm pleased that the $16 I paid for two SMA plants brought me a similar number of fans to what one $40 SMA from Oakes would have brought.


3. High Country Gardens
Ordered: Kingston Blue Strain agapantus, Cold Hardy white agapanthus, Penstemon tubaeflorus, Annie hardy verbena, Miss Manners obedient plant
I made two orders from High Country Gardens this spring. I was a little disappointed when the first order arrived. The white agapanthus and penstemon were moderately-sized for mail-order, but the blue agapanthus was puny. This was especially disappointing since I featured these two agapanthus in an earlier post. When I removed the blue agapanthus from its pot to plant, most of the soil fell away because the roots only occupied the top quarter (or less) of the 5" deep pot. I think all three plants were stunned by the transition from New Mexico temperatures to Spokane spring - probably a difference of 30 to 40 degrees. The white agapanthus and penstemon are finally putting on new growth, but the blue agapanthus has died back to the ground. I'm hoping it will resprout, but I'll contact the company to request a replacement if it doesn't. I don't often kill plants, and I think a larger version would have withstood the stress of transplanting better. My second order from HCG included two hardy (!) 'Annie' verbenas and a well-behaved 'Miss Manners' physostegia. All three plants (pictured above) were small on top but had great roots in their narrow but deep pots. They're doing well out in the garden now. Other than the blue agapanthus issue, I continue to think good things about High Country Gardens. They carry many unique plants that are especially suited to gardens in the western USA. Their packaging was great. I like their focus on sustainability and will probably order from them again (I'll post an update on the blue agapanthus later).
4. White Flower Farm
Ordered: Rosea Lavender and Snowdrift fern-leaf bleeding heart
I was hesitant to order from WFF after reading some complaints about them at GardenWatchdog.com. But I received a $25 off coupon for WFF after subscribing to Fine Gardening Magazine, so I went ahead and ordered the pink lavender and white bleeding heart that were calling to me from the catalog. I would have ordered a Bonanza clematis, but they were sold out (so I ordered it from Garden Crossings). My order arrived very quickly, as they were having a ships-the-day-after-ordering special. The 4" pot of lavender was moderately sized for mail order, and the bareroot clump of bleeding heart was large - probably four times as large as the bareroot plants I received from Park Seed. So I have no complaints, especially since my $25 coupon meant that I only had to pay for shipping.


5. Forest Farm
Ordered: Autumn Bride heuchera
Forest Farm is great, and their new website is beautiful. I've had Autumn Bride on my wish list for a while, and reading about it's charms in May's Fine Gardening magazine pushed me into ordering it. I couldn't find a nursery that carried AB and shipped to Washington state, other than Forestfarm. The one-gallon pot was reasonably priced at $9, but shipping was $12 for the heavy pot. The plant that arrived (pictured above) was nicely sized and healthy and is growing well out in the garden. I have to thank owner Ray for his quick response to my email after I couldn't find Autumn Bride on the website (though it was listed in the paper catalog). Forest Farm's GIGANTIC selection places it into a class of its own for mail order nurseries. Their plants are large for the price, though the drawback to large pots is more expensive shipping. I've learned a lot by poring over their paper catalog for hours on end and can highly recommend both the catalog and the plants.

Here ends my spring 2009 mail order reviews. I hope my words will encourage you to experience the delight of anticipating a mail delivery of that perfect, hard-to-find plant for your garden!

GBBD: May Flowers in Spokane Valley

I've been meaning to join the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day fun over at Carol's blog but haven't had many flowers in recent months. I do have a few blooms right now, though I'm cheating a bit since several were purchased in bloom from the garden center this spring. Here are a few shots taken at sunset today.


My 'Spring Snow' crabapples are perfectly sweet as they bloom for the first time in my garden- and they have a pleasant fragrance, unlike the stinky flowering pears in nearby yards.


My friend Robyne gave me bunches of these dwarf purple iris last year. Their early blooms have been much appreciated this spring.


The flowers on my dark pink (red?) dogwood are almost fully grown, and so lovely. Blooms on my light pink and white dogwoods are starting to appear, but they get less sun so the show is delayed.


And here the cheating begins - this 'Mrs C' clematis was purchased from WalMart last week.


'The President' clematis also came home from WalMart. I now have five types of clematis: one white (Candida), two light periwinkle (Will Goodwin and Mrs. C), and two deep blue-violet (The President and Bonanza). All are babies but should put on quite a show in coming years.


This white thrift (Armeria) is a recent purchase but would be close to blooming even if planted last year, as my pink varieties are nearly there.


I'm unsure what type of muscari this is, but the blue color is very interesting. This is the second year of bloom for them, and they have multiplied into little clumps.


This 'Caradonna' salvia came home from Lowe's last month. I'm excited to use the flowers in arrangements.


It's hard to get the colors just right on the computer screen. This salvia is 'May Night', and the flowers are a very similar color to 'Caradonna', though without the dark stems. This one is a recent purchase from Home Depot. The three others I planted last year are just showing buds.


A number of candytufts - started from seed two years ago - are blooming their heads off in the front yard. I'll probably give them away eventually, though, as I find that I'm craving color in the spring.


All of my snowdrop anemones had to be dug up and moved into pots, as their roots were extremely aggressive in my sandy flowerbed soil. The flowers ripen into puffy seedheads that look like cotton swabs.


Ivy geraniums like this one have to be treated as annuals here. I hadn't ever seen a double-flowered plant until I noticed this one at my local nursery (Gibson's). Don't the flowers remind you of spray roses? They're a favorite cut flower of mine as well.

That ends the bloom day tour of my yard. Carol named her blog after her favorite month in the garden. I'd have to say that June is the very best month for my garden, so I'll definitely try to participate next month as well.