Heucheras

Okay, Murmur - get in here and tell us what you know.

I absolutely love Obsidian, but the price of it is obscene (hmph!) and it actually seems to have gone up in years, rather than down.

Lets talk here about what we have and whether we can propagate it for trading when we all get together at Patricia's (Willowwind).

I have several that need to have their little tops chopped off. I understand that you can do that and then root them in the appropriate medium, but I need more detail. How moist should they stay, how much sun should they get, how long will it take, what's the risk.

And dividing them. How many plants can I get out of a large one, when should I do it, etc. Given the fact that they [seem to be] are slug-resistant in my yard, I'm going to go Heuch crazy this year and use it all over the yard, but I need to have a plan for doing it as inexpensively as possible.

Kathy - I'll try rooting one from the Obsidian MotherShip & you can have it. I read your post & went out to check mine. I pulled a wee one from the side; will pot up today.

Kate - you're so generous. Thank you! I do have a couple of Obsidians that are doing well - but I'll always take more if you don't want it. I love your phrase "Obsidian Mothership".

As pretty as they are, I don't find many of those in similar colors just quite do it for me.
:-) So I thought that maybe I could start propagating my own.

Some of the newer Heucheras are not really strong plants, and have a tendency to melt. Obsidian did quite well for me - I've learned to buy just one of each type after having lost several varieties. Not fun with higher prices.
I saw one last night on some gardening site - supposedly new for 2010. It's probably a good thing I don't remember all the places I visited online.

Yeah - I've found that any of the caramel colors definitely melt.

I love heuchs, and would love to have info on propigating them. I have had some that have melted myself, but have at least a couple that have done very well, and would love to be able to spread them in the garden as well as share them with friends. Will have to spend some time on line researching this as I never even thought to start them from cuttings!

Hi./
Mind if I join in? I live on the Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C.
We have a native Heuchera here, fairly bland, but it indicates that they ought to do VERY well here. The flowers are white with a pink tip or plain white, and they have nice green leaves.

I have bought a couple of other colors but they really don't seem vigorous ( just planted them late fall)
so I will keep an eye on them before putting out for more. I appreciate the tip about some 'melting' I won't panic and think I did something vile to them, if it happens.

I also planted Helebores in the same area last Fall, and 5 out of 8 are blooming for me now. They are quite delightful. The other 3 are quite small yet.
By for now. el

Absolutely, El. It's good to have lots of input.

I know we have a native that is similar to yours and purchased it at a native plant sale

Hi, enyeholt. Welcome. Do you have any idea what zone you are in?
Rarejem and I have fished at Langara for several years but only see it in August. I think you are South by quite a bit?

Hi everyone,
I love heuchera! Over the years I have collected many.
Her is list of heucheras I have
Peach Flambe, georgia peach, marmilade, peach melba, creme brulee, amber waves, southern comfort, ginger ale, encore,
key lime pie, lime ricky, citronelle, electra, pistache, harvest lemon chiffon
moca, mahogany, cho. ruffles, dark secret, beauty of color, burnish bronze,
Tiramisu.tara, miracle
strike it rich,crimson curls, starynight, creme de minth, sparkling burgandy, mardi gras, harvest silver, mini mouse, moca mint, fandango, midnight rose, prince of orange, french quarter, licorice, vivid, snow angel, green spice, miricale, earth angel, hercules
They root so easy from cuttings. There is some good stuff on the Heuchera forum about propagating. You are right about some of the new ones, Creme brulee is bad and the lime green like shade as the leaves burn. The best carmel color heuch. for me is carmel. A strong grower. Peach Flambe, Georgia peach are nice strong ones

Most of mine are in pots, because I like to cantainer garden. Grubs love these plants and I have lost a few to those things. If any of you live close be glad to do cuttings from what I have and grow on. Just D-mail me and I will see what I can do. Really do not want to mail. I have a few new ones coming I hope they will come in march.

Here's a helpful post that leads to propagation information

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=6048684

On that other side I belong to, I just bought some new heucheras from Terra Nova. I'm getting these this year:
Brass Lantern, Electra, Lime Marmelade, Fire Chief, and Sweet Tea. Some are Heucherellas, which I also like. I love the caramel colored ones and the one that has done best for me is Ginger ale. I did lose a lot to the voles last year, and had to re-root several of them. I love the lime colored ones because they do well in the shade and hold their color there. Obsidian is one that actually did not do well for me, but I think it is because it did not get enough sun and was a little overgrown by other things. Gypsy dancer has done extremely well and I was able to divide that after only one year and replant the divisions. Starry Night has also done very well and both of these are on the north side of the house, geting sunshine only in the late spring through early fall. Green spice is an old standby that does very well also.
One that I really love came from Laurie in England and that is Brown Finch. It is not available in the U.S. yet and I am waiting for it to be large enough to propagate.

Now, I haven't read the propagation literature, but the way I do mine is if I divide a plant and part of it needs to be rooted, or if the roots have been eaten and I need to root it, I just clip off anything that looks broken, etc, dip in a little rooting hormone, and stick the bottom of the crown to the ground. If necessary, I use a landscaping pin to hold it in place. As long as the drainage is good, it's going to root. I don't bother doing mine in pots since these are hardy plants. They might root faster if I baby them, but there are too many other babies being cared for to have time for that in my garden. I've already done this for this year since the weather has been so nice.

Pix, I did baby all of the starts you gave me and did not put them out until fall. All look good in front of the hosta bed they now call home. (I put your starts right into composted dirt and that worked just fine. When they grow a little more I will have to send you pictures so you can tell me which ones they are. Thanks again for sharing.

I have Sweet Tea and absolutely love the color. Like most Tiarella's, she seemed to react a little more to winter than the Heucheras, but she's revving up for spring just beautifully.

So I'm going to be brave and chop the heads off a couple of the Heucheras and see what happens. I've decided that my Obsidians can be divided, as well. Sometimes these plants seem so tough and others they don't, so we'll see.

Sharon, looking forward to seeing your pictures.

I grew Obsidian in a container in full sun. She's looking for some sun these days, as am I.
Pix - which Heucheras are in your photo - Ginger Ale???

I love heucheras, one of my favorites. I've got a bunch, not as many as springcolor, though.

I tried the "off with your head" thing last spring on one of my Bressingham hybrids, with great trepidation (tried it on one I was willing to lose) and it actually did work. It was a little slower to come back than I'd expected, but it did come back with no problems and was fine all year.

Heuch's are tough. I chop mine up (or sometimes rip them apart, or sometimes they just come apart all on their own) and plant them again, no hormone, no nothin' and they've done surprisingly well-except for Snow Angel (she's known to be fussy-Hercules is much better). They can have all their roots chomped by weevils and as long as there's still a decent crown they will re-root just fine.

Peach Flambe does quite well in a pot in full sun for me (it's one of the ones in that pot combo on the other thread). Caramel is fantastic, one of the larger ones I have(the other one in that pot combo) Creme Brulee has been OK for me, but not as spectacular as I'd been hoping. I like Mahogany much better.

That's interesting, Sue. Peach Flambe, Caramel, and Creme Brulee have all disappeared on me. I gave them full sun . . .

Of my Obsidian, 3 have died, 2 are growing and healthy. I don't know what that's about, but I'm going to work from these two.

Glad to hear that you all have had such success with rooting the tops.

You guys are all so smart - knowing all that Heuchera stuff. I had to go to the plant info place to see what they are! What colors! I must have some! So many plants, sol ittle space.......

I, for one, will never have a handle on all the different cultivars of Heuchera. There are zillions and they come out with new ones every year!!

P.S. Heuchera would look nice anywhere in your garden . . .

I agree, there are so many it's tough to keep track. I didn't get any new ones last year, I may need to check out some of the newest ones this spring.

Kathy, don't know what to tell you-mine were in those pots for better than two years (I dug and divided caramel last fall and moved it). Peach Flambe isn't looking very happy right now, but it's still hanging in there. I think it's in mourning for its Phormium friend. Creme Brulee has also been in the ground for maybe 3 years now-this might be its fourth. I've dug and moved it more than many of them trying to make it flourish. I think I keep mine a little on the dry side, not sure if that makes a difference?

I think Obsidian can be one of the fussier ones. Mine hasn't died, but it hasn't increased like many of my others have.

(btw, is your Mt Tahoma nursery hepatica blooming? Mine has just started, and it's pink!!! Must have more of those...)

I love Obsidian, but it has not done well by me. I wonder if it needs more sun than I've given it?
True to form, I already had at least half of the heucheras I ordered. Already have Sweet Tea, and also Electra. But the Terra Nova site said 'new for 2010', and I loved them, so I ordered them. Sometimes my lack of memory astounds me. No problem, since I am working on the berm and need many more heuchera for the edge.

Kayte, that's allegedly 'Caramel' in the photo. I need to divide that one. I do love it, and it does very well for me.

What is this 'chopping off their heads' thing? Are you talking about dividing them? Or just cutting the crown off?

Sharon, I'm glad to hear your rooted well. I will do my best to ID them for you, but no guarantees. Those tags get moved around, disappear, etc. I blame the squirrels.

Pix, it's something Ciscoe Morris suggests. Here's a paragraph about it: http://www.seattlepi.com/nwgardens/355604_ciscoe20.html?source=rss

For me, Obsidian's done better than some and worse than others. the two I have now are very happy. I guess it just goes to show that there's variability with these guys. I'm going to continue to use them because once they're established they rock!

Sue, yes, I got two and they're both flowering. They're just awesome. Actually, Weerobin, who first turned me on to Mt. Tahoma, decided to order one when he saw the picture I posted. It's not in Rick's normal catalogue, so we have something special here. :-)

A picture of mine:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=7552385

Here's Riz Reyes' picture from the Miller Garden - I can hardly wait until mine gets this big!

http://www.rizreyes.com/files/P3120004.JPG

And an article:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=7543227

Yours is larger than mine, and doing really well. I went ahead and planted it in the ground. Decided I'd better after I killed one of the oreganos in record time. I am going to get at least one more if I can. Guess I'd better email him soon, huh?

Sue, that's what I thought you guys were referring to. It's like growing Echeverias. Off with their heads! It hurts the first time you do it, but after that, the thrill is gone. I don't see why that wouldn't work excellently with heucheras.

You do know, don't you, that Rick at Mt. Tahoma will not ship within the state of Washington? Since our illustrious legislature changed the way sellers calculate sales tax, mail order businesses like his have suffered. It's too much trouble for him to ship within his own state because he'd have to calculate the tax based on where the order originates, not from where he ships. Ridiculous. That's a lovely hepatica!

Pix, yes, I do know that he won't ship in WA. And, yes, that is a ridiculous law. (Not quite enough to get me to get a mailbox in Oregon, though. ;) ) I was thinking that if I wrote him maybe I could reserve one or two and make arrangements to visit out there. I know you wanted to take a trip out that way, too. Maybe we could coordinate something?

I need to go back and see his gardens in the spring. And there's no way I'll be getting away plantless. :-) I think he's generally happy to reserve things for pickup for people in Washington State.

I have a blue Hepatica and a white one that I'm still waiting on. The cremar came pretty early.

My blue one started blooming a week or more ago. I just noticed the cremar today, but it's in more shade.

My blue one is in bloom. sounds like a road trip to me. I do need to visit. Were people still wanting to visit Lakewold during the blooming of the rhodies? Maybe we could make an informal day of that?

PNW people are so helpful, so nice and you give those of us who lurk such good information! Thank you, all.

I have many heuchera but nearly as many as springcolor! Can you imagine how shocked I was to see the beautiful blooms above (in links)? Mine are nothing at all like that!

Here's my Obsidian, about 4 years old now but it's always looked good, and it's in just early morning sun, Pixy. Look at the pitiful flower!

What a gorgeous combination, Pril. You give me good ideas. Are your hostas small all of the time? If so, what varieties are they?

Susybell - you could have it shipped to my house in Portland and pick it up here if need be.

This message was edited Feb 27, 2010 10:35 AM

The hostas were brand new at the time the photo was taken and so was the Obsidian. Unless the snow has frozen my brain I believe they are June and Remember Me.

Hi Pirl - Nice to see you over here.

I'll just fess up now - I'm so stealing some of your combinations from your shady area - don't know why I didn't think of them.

Judi - you enabler you!! Nice solution. But I'd like to do a Lakewood/Mt. Tahoma spring trip. That would be awesome!

Katie - I don't do inspections so go ahead and steal.

This was one of those happy accidents.

Beautiful, what is the white one? Astillbe? bad spelling

The astilbe is Bridal Veil and the hydrangea is Harlequin.

Thanks.

Has anyone previously commented on the fact that the photos online of Purple Petticoats is nothing at all like the plant looks in person?

pirl

Just looking at your pictures. Nice contrast with that Obsidian, makes it pop. Went on a little trip so a bit late on seeing your pictures. I am still waiting for my sweet tea, golden zebra, midas touch and some others. How did you guys get the new Heuchera and family so fast.

I have never chopped of heads, just divided. I might try that on some old ones.
My offer still stands. If any of my neighbors are interested.
Katie 59
http://www.rizreyes.com/files/P3120004.JPG What is that blue flower that you posted a Hepatica? couldn't follow posts on that plant.