This valuable foliage plant, best known for its hardy purple shades, is now available in a rainbow of colours, from red and pink through to ginger, apricot, lime, chartreuse and even jet black. While some of the more lurid shades might look out of place in a large-scale planting, they do make a vibrant showing in a pot or planter, and some are even hardy enough to look good through the winter when planted in moist but well-drained soil in sun or partial shade. They make a great addition to the garden at this time of year because the colourful foliage can provide variety while you’re waiting for other plants to bloom. These are some of my favourite varieties.
Red
The compact Heuchera ‘Autumn Leaves’ (20cm) offers an array of vibrant red shades throughout the year. It starts the season with bright-red foliage, which lightens a touch in the summer then matures to a ruby red for the autumn and winter months. White spires of flowers with a hint of pink appear from June to August.
For even more vibrant-coloured foliage with a hint of fuchsia, plant Heuchera ‘Berry Smoothie’. The raspberry-coloured leaves slowly deepen to a rose purple, providing a shocking contrast with the green foliage of other container plants, and an especially invigorating clash with bright and lime greens. A large 50cm with trademark cream flowers that bloom in midsummer.
For a darker shade, the popular Heuchera ‘Plum Pudding’ is an excellent choice. Deep-red leaves dusted silver remain on the plant throughout the year, with the addition of small maroon and green flowers from May to August. At 50cm it makes an excellent foliage plant that stays neat even throughout the winter. If you prefer your dark-red leaves without a sprinkling of silver, the 35cm Heuchera ‘Cassis’ is a fine choice. The leaves range in colouring from thick blackcurrant to a more diluted Ribena and are topped by bright cherry-pink flowers from April to June.
Orange
Heuchera ‘Marmalade’ is a widely available orange-toned plant with a spread of 45cm and a height of 25cm. The peach leaves are fully hardy and have a tantalising bright pink underside. The brown flower stems that appear in June add little to the display. If you can get hold of Heuchera ‘Pinot Gris’ you will find the colouring is more refined, with apricot leaves and pink veining.
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In sunshine this colouring intensifies through apricot towards a smoky rose as the cold winter months encroach. This 35cm plant also has white-flowering stems from May to September. Another excellent warm shade can be found in Heuchera ‘Caramel’, which has rich golden leaves that emerge the colour of honey and glow in increasingly apricot and red tones as the summer heats up. Another 35cm plant with gently undulating, wavy leaves that remain in fine form all year round, and late, light, small white flowers at 45cm tall from July to September.
Yellow
The best golden-yellow spring leaves can be found on the 30cm Heuchera ‘Electra’, which emerge with bright-red veining. In summer the colouring mellows to chartreuse, and by autumn the leaves are more of a tan shade. If you are after a burst of sunny yellow in the summer months, the slightly daintier 20cm Heuchera ‘Tiramisu’ might be the one for you. Although the leaves emerge bright pink with a thick golden yellow band around the edge, this yellow spreads across the whole leaf by midsummer to leave only reddish-brown veins to show the initial pink colouring. Another way that heuchera can add yellow is from the flowers rather than the foliage.
Heuchera ‘Blondie’ has amazingly vibrant, turmeric-coloured flowers in densely packed, squat spires reminiscent of a chunky crayon. The foliage is a coppery maroon, not yellow, with apricot and red freckling, but it forms a neat and enduring 25cm plant.
Green
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For lime-green leaves, look no farther than Heuchera ‘Lime Rickey’. The gently ruffled leaves of this compact 20cm plant are diminutive but not dainty in their colouring. The lime green and chartreuse screams from this plant. I used to choose Heuchera cylindrica for neutral green foliage, but now I’m more often tempted by Heuchera ‘Venus’. The evergreen leaves emerge frosted a silvery green but with a pink blush to each new leaf. These leaves start to appear in early autumn and grow right through the winter, untouched by frost, forming a large 50cm mounding plant.
Indigo and violet
There are plenty of purple and near-black heucheras — one of the best of the near-black varieties is Heuchera ‘Obsidian’, which lives up to the volcanic glass of its namesake with glossy, almost glassy, jet-black leaves and a hint of burnt aubergine. The flowers are creamy white and held on wiry stems and the foliage is neat.
Lightening things up just a touch is Heuchera villosa ‘Palace Purple’, which has bronze purple leaves with an almost metallic sheen. Supremely hardy and widely available at local nurseries and garden centres, it is a useful and reliable plant deserving of a place in every garden. Loose panicles of pale-pink flowers appear in the summer between June and August but it is the foliage that this plant is grown for. Heuchera ‘Shanghai’ is another silvery lilac variety with deeply veined markings on the leaves throughout the year.