Newbie here saying hello

Hey everyone. I just wanted to jump in and say that I have recently fallen in love with Heuchera's. I am usually over in the butterfly/hummingbird forum but was looking through the Internet for some morning glory seeds and came upon this lovely plant. I had heard of coral bells before but had no idea they this kind of plant and came in such great colors. I ordered four plants so far (hopefully I can stop there for now. Once I fall in love with a plant it is pitiful). Anyways, I just wanted to introduce myself and will probably be needing some help on these as I have never, ever had them. I also found out they are great for butterflies so its all good.

Leslie

Welcome. I think you will love your heucheras and probably not be able to stop...misery loves company...I can't seem to stop.

What 4 have you ordered?

Rose

I hope I am able to stop also. So far I have become "addicted" to salvia and bought about 5 of those, morning glories and bought about 7 of those, butterfly bush, 5 of those, butterfly weed, 4 of those and now Heuchera's. Lets see I know I bought caramel, Green Spice, CanCan, Mint Frost, and I swear I cannot remember the others. I bought them online as my stores do not have any right now. I know there is another one because I bought Caramel and another one at one place and the other three somewhere else.

I hope they do okay here in West Texas. I do have a shade garden though because I planted a lot of stuff in it that would be doing much better with some more sun so hopefully it will be a good place for them. I do have hard clay soil so am going to have to add some stuff to the soil when I plant them. (I only do that for the plants I really care about, lol) Any suggestions on how to make the soil better for these beautiful plants?

And thanks for the welcome. I know I am going to love it here Rose.

Leslie

Leslie,
Welcome to the heuchera forum. Lots of good info here. Glad to have you. And, yes, you will find yourself buying more of these lovelies.

Kelly

Leslie~
Here you are on the heuchera forum!! Welcome! I told you I needed 'rehab' and now you see that that is true. Join me, will you?? LOL!
Yep, these are one of my addictions, too. I bought 3 this week!
We all need to know what you got, so 'fess up!
Bev

Oh man I got caught in another forum with another addiction. See I need help too.

Lets see so far I have Caramel, Marmalade, I got one at HD and not sure what it is but it is more of a silvery purple, I ordered mocha, and two more I ordered and I cannot remember the names. I think I got the pretty common ones. I heard a lot of people talking about French Quarter and looked at it and absolutely loved it. But I held off and I thought if the ones from this year do okay I will try to get that one next year. So far I have found a lot of info on this forum as I had no info before I bought them and now maybe they stand a chance. They are all in mostly shade, some sunlight and so far so good.

Leslie

Marmelade is on my list to aquire at some point, as if FQ...lots of us are looking, right??
The never-ending quest(s)!

Hi
Just wanted to say that if planted near Caramel and Peach Flambe etc.
Mocha, Brownies and Citronelle really accentuate the peach and melon
colors. Such a wonderful palette when planted in a group. I love my Caramel
and Mocha.

Hi Leslie! I'm a recent convert to the joys of heucheras & new to this forum, too, and love all your choices!
So far off your list I just have Marmalade. It is a super vigorous plant that seems to tolerate any place I put it in it's pot if watered enough. I had it in bright shade at first but it turned green ~ now that it is getting lots of morning light it is "orangeing up" again & just stunning. Now I want Caramel and Mocha to go with it... (Thanks, I think, fleur_guy! LOL)

Leslie - Amending clay soil can be a can of worms. The only thing I can suggest is to
use some sort of manure/compost and work it into the soil/hole. If you don't
have raised beds it can be work intensive. Just make sure any amendment
you use won't burn the roots. Gypsum can be used but any amendment you
use won't do the job overnight. Be patient for your corrections to take effect.

Marea - You will really like Caramel & Mocha and hopefully sometime in the future
Brownies & Citronelle can be considerd to close the loop of the earth-
tone colored Heuch's. I have my eyes on a new Heucherella 'Burnished
Bronze' which seems to be colored somewhere between Mocha and
Brownies. The heuchera's & friends have to be one of the best new per-
ennials in a long time. Of course I mean all the new varieties that are
bein hybridized.

Thanks yall. I am glad to know my mocha that I did win on ebay will go well with the others I have. Also good to know that I bought manure/compost just for the purpose of planting my Heuchera. I must have read on here somewhere to do that because there is no way I would have been that smart on my own. I just knew I needed to amend the soil some. So as I planted I missed that in with my soil. So far so good. They are beautiful. Not completely filled out yet but still beautiful. I was away over the weekend and got in late last night and then had to work today so I cannot wait until I get home tonight to go out and look at all my plants I had to leave over the weekend. Plus we got some rain so they should be doing really well.

Thanks for everyone's advice and also letting me know that I am actually doing some stuff right for these beautiful plants.

Leslie

In my experience, Marmalade seems to take a lot of sun and really gives great colors when it gets it. Of course, you may need to tone that down a bit in Texas! Both Green Spice and Mint Frost are also pretty tolerant of sun in my garden, but, since they aren't really hybrids but basically species selections of H. americana, they ought to be pretty flexible.
I bought 'Can Can' today. Had to chose between it and 'Amber Waves', and 'Can Can' won out. Lots of 'Brownies' at 1 Euro less per plant (and bigger plants), but I confess I was not impressed by it.
Hope your new heucheras succeed Leslie!

Potagere as far as 'Brownies' is concerned, it may not be a stand alone
beauty. But if you combine it with some of the Caramel's and Citronelle's
it will be a color enhancer in that palette of colors. One thing I've learned,
sometimes when you see plants at the nursery, you get a different feeling
in comparison to a website or catalog. Pictures can be deceiving. LOL

Leslie, I am new to this forum as well, and I live in Fort Worth, TX. I can't wait to hear how your new plants do. This fall I'll be choosing some for my garden too, and it's hard -- there are so many pretty ones to choose between. In another thread I started, with a question about the Tapestry variety, I found out that some varieties of hueschera can't take the Texas heat but that others do well. Anyway, I can't wait to hear how you like the ones you ordered. PS. I grew up in Albany, very near Abilene.

Hi, another Texan here and Heuchera newbie. I love them. So far I have Venus, Mocha, and Pistache. I had Melting Fire from Casita Azul(Ilovehostas) but it died....don't know why. I would like one that has the pale lime green foliage with red or pink flowers.

Hi Leslie, welcome to the wonderful world of heucheras! From personal experience, once the addiction bites, you are done for LOL (well at least I was!). I started with one and haven;t been able to stop. I also got bit by the Brunnera bug (although thankfully, there are not as many varieties), love my pulmonarias too. And this summer I finally gave in to the Hosta bug that I had been fighting (now that was a mistake!!!!).

Brenda

HiRose welcome to the world of Heuchera.
Brenda, I just got 3 pulmonarias this year. Two of them, 'Mrs. Moon' have been hit really hard with powdery mildew. Have you had any problems with that? I have been looking at the Brunnera for awhile now. I really love the looks of them but so far have not given in to the temptation. I'm sure it's just a matter of time though.

My pulmonarias haven't been hit with powdery mildew this year. I am surprised that with all the rain we have had, that they aren't. I haven't really had too many problems with powdery mildew on them. I recommend the brunneras. They form a really nice mound and the flowers are so pretty in the spring. I get the pleasure of the forget me not flower without having it seed itself all over my garden. Plus the leaves are a really nice contrast for the rest of the season. I have been drooling over brunnera 'gold strike' but at $50, not sure I can sneak that in unnoticed lol.

Hi Leslie, welcome. You have lots of good people on this forum to give some great advice when you need it. Once you get the Heuchera bug, you're hooked! There are so many great plants to choose from.

Here in my zone, I have had my share of losses but also my share of successes with them. You may find some of them are somewhat challenging when finding their "happy place". Here, we get hot and humid summers so I have discovered here through DG that the villosas are happy in heat and humidity so I am looking for them as new purchases. They have such beauties to choose from too.

Happy Heuchera Hunting!

$50!!! Yup, you'd have to strike gold to get that one.