Buried alive, or how not to display heucheras for fall

It was a beautiful day here today, and I was out in the yard doing clean up. Most of my heuchera are in pretty good shape, but most of the nearby plants are gone until next spring. And the heuchs are pretty near totally buried in leaves, which I like to leave on the beds for the winter, which doesn't exactly show them off.

So, for fun, I thought I'd share my pictures from today, but I'm really looking for ideas about how to put together beds that look good until the snow sets in. What do you do when the hostas are gone?

Here's a clump of Venus, with silver scrolls in the corner.

Melting Fire with sweet woodruff - one of my few that still is next to something with living leaves.

Carmel disappears into the oak leaves.

Georgia Peach is only slightly better.

Plum Pudding shows up a little better.

As does Silver Scrolls.

Tiramisu looks nice, but mine is still little.

And Snow Angel is losing the leaf battle.

I think for next year, I might try rearranging plants into clumps of heuchera (the Venus clump looks the best to me) and/or try to plant next to ground covers that stay good looking into late fall. Elsewhere, I have a yellow-leaved lamium, golden creeping jenny and some ajuga whose name I forget that still look pretty good that I could rearrange.

Or I could not look outside until May.

Any ideas?

Peg

StPaulPeg, your Heucheras look pretty good. I'm going to watch this site also. I'm trying to think what to do with my Heuch's. My yard in the Northeast looks pretty sad this time of year also. Thanks for the pictures.

I think everyone's out raking. I thought about this as I was raking today.

I think I'm going to put golden Lysimachia in the bed with plum pudding and snow angel, then keep it kind of raked out until the last release of the burr oak above it. Here's the golden moneywort:

I think this ajuga would look good with tiramisu or silver scrolls, also maybe eco-magnifolia (which I didn't take a picture of.) Here's the ajuga. Would it overwhelm the heuchera?

I have some green/yellow lamium (no pictures) in the same bed as Georgia Peach. If Georgia makes it through the winter, I'll move some of the lamium closer. There's a crimson barberry nearby, a purplish polenium and a razor's edge hosta during the gowing season (with reddish petioles) so some contrast might be nice.

How about a turtlehead behind Melting fire? This is the first year for this melting fire for me - last year's didn't make it through the winter, so I'm not sure yet whether this is really an annual in Minnesota.

Here's a picture from farther back of the Carmel. I think they would look better off hanging a little over the rock border, with a clump of bergenia behind, between the rhododendron and the arbor vita.

I know all these things will get buried, too, but at least there may be little bits that peak through. I have all winter to plan this out.

This message was edited Nov 8, 2009 7:26 PM

I do not care where you put them if you have enough oak leafs they are going to get snared in the heuchera and you about have to pick each one out. I only have purple palace and chocolate ruffels in the ground. Those plants serve as boarders. They are also super tough in the ozarks. I do have about 20 other varieties in pots from 5 gals up. And believe me they get loaded with leafs. I think many heuchera really do better in pots especially the new villosa monsters. I like the pots because it give me a mini enviorment that I can control. I have found there is much variation in the watering and feeding of the different heuchera.

I'm moving alot of my heucheras to pots for the reasons mentioned by lkozarksgarden. I've lost about 10 this year due to differing reasons, especially drainage. I wanted you to know that I've found both ajuga & lanium to be very agressive in my garden. I love both plants thus I planted them in my rock gardens around trees. The Lanium I can contain as a ground cover around the tree. The ajuga liked to travel leaving the area I orginally planted it in, thus I have to dig it up and plant it back where I wanted it. I wanted to also let you know in the past I've left all the leaves in my garden as mulch to protect the Heucheras during the winter. This seems to work well. I do go out and clear the leaves around them in very eary spring. I hope this helps.

Thanks for the tips. Do you guys bury the pots or leave them out for the winter?

The lamium here doesn't seem to be too aggressive. I've had it a few years and I kind of wish it would be more aggressive, actually. This is the first year I've planted ajuga and I can see where it could get out of bounds pretty quickly.

I understand what you're saying about the oaks, oz. The rake and my hands de-oak the heuchera pretty well each spring. With seven oaks on an urban lot, and more oaks upwind ready to contribute, the leaves are everywhere!

Thanks again, Peg

There's lamium and then there's false lamium. True lamium, Lamium maculatum includes cultivars such as 'White Nancy', 'Purple Dragon', 'Pink Pewter', etc. which usually are not aggressive. False lamium, Lamiastrum galeobdolon, often called Golden Dead Nettle, is most often represented by 'Herman's Pride', which can be very, very aggressive. I thought I'd write about these because many people get them confused. Both are pretty evergreen in most zones, but lamium makes a more refined mat of foliage and can be easily thinned out around hostas and other perennials. False lamium can be wicked indeed to get rid of, and grows quite rapidly.

For winter interest in shade gardens, try planting Italian arum which sends up fresh leaves in late fall for the winter. Wild ginger is also great and hardy in zones 4 to 8. Of course, for great winter interest, plant Helleborus, also know as Lenten rose. The tough foliage lasts all winter and the many great cultivars are hardy zones 3 to 8. For zones 6 to 8, you can't beat shade-loving Japanese Forest Grass, Hakonechloa macra, the 2009 Perennial Plant of the Year.

I also keep a few red-twig dogwood shrubs in a corner of my vegetable garden. In late fall, I cut brilliant red shoots and stick bunches of them in the ground where I can see them from the house. Fake bushes that wouldn't grow well in the shade, but do just fine for the winter.

Thanks, HoosierGreen! I really like the red-twig dogwood idea, especially. Peg