Earlier this week I wrote about our last garden club meeting,when Vicky and Richard Fox from Jubilee Cottage Nursery kept us enthralled with news and views on the subject of heucheras. Now where was I ? About to describe the new heucheras coming to a nursery near you soon! Depending on your whereabouts in the universe, some of these heucheras may have already landed. Vicky and Richard do quite a bit of trialling plants in the UK for Dan Heims, the well known plantsman and breeder. I must admit that my notes became more sparse as the evening went on because the room we were in became overwhelmingly hot. More information including photos of these new heucheras can be seen at www.plantagogo.uk or at www.terranovanurseries.com
These new plants include :
'Berry Smoothie' - a shade lover
'Fire Chief' - fantastic red foliage. The bicoloured pink and white flowers start coming in spring and keep on right till autumn.
'Electra' -more veining as she matures. An improvement on 'Tiramisu' Compared to ‘Tiramisu' and more vigorous.
'Miracle' - new in 2009. Starts with green leaves but the foliage completely changes as the year progresses.
'Lime Marmalade' - a limey coloured sport of ‘Marmalade'. A bigger, chunkier and more vigorous version of ‘Lime Rickey'. Frilly foliage opening limey green which retains its colour as the foliage matures, eventually taking on yellow tones. Will cope with summer heat.
'Autumn Leaves' - nice big white flowers with a pink flush. Likes full sun.
'Havana' - grown for its flowers. Will flower all summer long and can take some sun. Vicky advised that all the Dan Heims heucheras which are named after cities are bred specifically for their flowers. They are also usually long flowering.
'Midas Touch'- a shade loving stunner. This has gone down on my wish list.
'Mint Julep' - Vicky's favourite newcomer.
'Milan' - will take full sun. Flowers set on unusually short stems.
Vicky intimated that there is some exciting breeding work taking place, especially with regard to heucherellas and tiarellas but she is sworn to secrecy. What a shame. For anybody who might like to visit the nursery it opens by appointment only - the phone number is on the website. The nursery currently holds a national collection of heucherellas. They have applied for national collection status of heucheras - they currently have about 230 varieties. Vicky mentioned that they also hope to have a national tiarella collection in the future.
The final part of the evening's proceedings was the opportunity to buy from a well stocked and groaning sales table. For once I dazzled myself with my organisation by ordering plants online to be bought to the meeting. Sadly the first batch of 'Berry Smoothie' had been all snaffled up but my name is down for one of the next batch. I did go home though with heucherella 'Sweet Tea' (above photos) and heuchera 'Venus'. I also came home with a catalogue. Web browsing is satisfactory but nothing beats a good catalogue for bedtime reading ! A catalogue is also useful in the self restraint department as you can't add to that virtual shopping basket there and then.
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