Vicky and Richard Fox have a bit of a thing for heucheras. What started as a hobby to safeguard disappearing varieties has turned into a full-blown passion, with the couple now growing over 430 different types! We gave Vicky the difficult task of choosing just six April beauties she couldn’t be without.
Heuchera ‘Rio’
One of the ‘City Series’ of heucheras, bred for their flower power as well as colourful foliage, Heuchera ‘Rio’ is as bright and vibrant as its metropolitan namesake. Like all heucheras, ‘Rio’ is evergreen but if that makes you think of dark green – think again. Heucheras are known for the foliage colours, but ‘Rio’ is in a league of its own, changing from season to season. In spring it is a rich, vibrant orange tone, changing to amber, then deepening to a rich tan and finally a beautiful yellow amber.
To top it off, its short maroon stems blossom with white flowers for most of the spring, summer and autumn. It’s extremely hardy too, able to survive temperatures to -20 and beyond. Amazing!
Heuchera ‘Sugar Plum’
A fantastic heuchera that has it all! Its white flowers flushed with pink make it a real showstopper, and its wonderful frosty plum foliage makes tidy mounds throughout the summer and still looks good in the winter. ‘Sugar Plum’ is also one of Richard’s favourites, and was a finalist in ‘The Top Plants for Chelsea 2010.’ This heuchera loves full sun, but will be fine in partial shade as well.
Heuchera ‘Sweet Tart’
Small and neat, growing to approximately 8-10 inches wide, this heuchera is part of the aptly named ‘Little Cutie Series’. They are perfect if you want lots of heucheras but only have a small space.
With lime green foliage and a profusion of pretty pink flowers from spring through to autumn, ‘Sweet Tart’ is a wonderful flower for attracting the bees and other pollinating insects - something we should all be trying to do more of! It’s great for shady spots too, as all the lime green varieties need a little shade from the midday sun.
Heuchera ‘Thomas’
I think Heuchera ‘Thomas’ is my favourite, although I am probably a bit biased as we bred it ourselves and named it after our son Thomas! It’s a very unusual heuchera with low, neat green foliage and maroon veining, and makes for great ground cover if planted in numbers.
In May, June, July and August, it has elegant, tall, strong, slender stems rising from the crown; buds like ears of corn that stand proud and slowly open to reveal beautiful long-lasting cream bells at the top of the stem. Heuchera ‘Thomas’ was a finalist at The Chelsea Flower Show 2013 in the ‘New Plant For Chelsea’ competition. Thomas enjoys partial shade and like all heucheras, it doesn’t like to get water logged, but can handle periods of drought.
Tiarella ‘Candy Striper’
Commonly know as ‘Foam Flower,’ tiarellas are another speciality of ours, and a beautiful option for shady spaces. ‘Candy Striper’ has possibly the most dissected foliage I know of - it has pretty pink buds, which open to reveal white starry flowers and will flourish in dry shade. I’m not the only one who loves it either, the bees do too! A real gem for the garden.
Heucherella ‘Solar Eclipse’
Heucherella are the result of crossing a tiarella with a heuchera. The flowers are more star-shaped, like tiarellas and, like heucheras, most heucherella prefer to be in partial shade.
These plants are defined by their beautiful, large scalloped-edged leaves of dark maroon with a lime green border. After a frost in winter the foliage changes to an inky blue-black. The ‘Solar Eclipse’ is a particularly stunning variety, forming a very neat, dense crown of foliage and producing white flowers in summer.
You can buy Vicky and Richard’s lovely plants from the Plantagogo website or on nursery open days at Jubilee Cottage Nursery, Snape lane, Englesea brook, Nr Crewe, Cheshire, CW2 5QN.
Alternatively, you can visit their stand at GROW London this June on Hampstead Heath.