{"id":456,"date":"2008-08-30T06:18:46","date_gmt":"2008-08-30T13:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.remarc.com\/craig\/?p=456"},"modified":"2008-08-30T06:18:46","modified_gmt":"2008-08-30T13:18:46","slug":"heucheras-managing-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/?p=456","title":{"rendered":"Heucheras: Managing expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"heucheras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s been much gnashing of teeth over heucheras lately. Nan sang the Heuchera Blues<\/a> over at Gardening Gone Wild<\/a> recently, concluding, “A few years ago, I tried to change my expectations and think of the fantastic foliage heucheras as just really expensive annuals.”<\/p>\n

I’ve changed my expectations, too.<\/p>\n

I’ve always been skeptical of catalogs. But for some reason I suspended that disbelief for heucheras (and tiarellas and heucherellas) when I first discovered them. I thought that I could grow bushel-basket-sized plants just like the pictures in the catalogs. But I soon learned that Upstate New York is not the Pacific Northwest. I like to focus on plants that want to grow here. And heucheras are reluctant residents here.<\/p>\n

Why? Probably the biggest factor is my heavy clay soil that heaves during our increasingly open and variable winters. Even where I’ve greatly improved the soil, it’s a late-winter ritual to look for heaved heucheras and shove them back into still frosty soil<\/strong> before their roots dry out. I’ve also got some in dry shade which they really don’t seem to like much during summer, since I don’t water ornamentals in the ground once established.<\/p>\n

Unlike Nan, I don’t treat them like annuals. But now I look at them as woodland jewels<\/strong> — much the same way I think of minor bulbs. From time to time, I get down on my hands an knees, pluck off a few ratty leaves and behold what’s left and say, ‘That’s really cool.’<\/p>\n

And I try not to grow them as specimen plants. They are usually surrounded by sweet woodruff, lamiums or other shade-loving groundcovers. That way, they don’t stick out like a sore thumb when they aren’t looking their best.<\/p>\n

This is one of the few whose names I remember, H. ‘Monet’. Though it’s stayes small, it’s hung on for several years now. Looks better in person.
\n\"heucheras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One year, I collected a bunch of seed from the half-dozen or so store-bought heucheras I had in a patch (most long-gone now) and planted the mixed seed in cells. I got a dozen or so plants that I planted in a shady patch I call ‘Craig’s Mix’ on the north side of the house where they usually struggle under the shade of a massive bleeding heart. These are my favorites.
\n\"heucheras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More ‘Craig’s Mix’.
\n\"heucheras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Still more ‘Craig’s Mix’.
\n\"heucheras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If memory serves, this is Heucherella ‘Kimono’. The foliage reminds me of some geraniums.
\n\"heucheras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I’ve also got many heucheras with purple and brownish foliage, though I don’t like them nearly as much as the green ones touched with silver and red.
\n\"heucheras\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So even if you can’t grow massive heucheras, do grow some. And get down on your knees and be thankful for what you get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been much gnashing of teeth over heucheras lately. Nan sang the Heuchera Blues over at Gardening Gone Wild recently, concluding, “A few years ago, I tried to change my expectations and think of the fantastic foliage heucheras as just really expensive annuals.” I’ve changed my expectations, too. I’ve always been skeptical of catalogs. But … Continue reading “Heucheras: Managing expectations”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ellishollow.remarc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}