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Heuchera's

AliPAliP Posts: 64

I wondered if anyone has some good tips for getting the best from their Heuchera's.  Mine always look a little bedraggled and tend to grow up leaving a bare stem underneath and become very vulnerable to snapping off. Any advice would be gratefully received because I do love these plants and the range of foliage colours you can get. Just don't feel i'm doing them justice at the moment.
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  • EASY! Heucheras do have a short life (in my experience 2, maybe 3 years before that happens. I have only ever bought one each of every variety I own (about 10?) and have loads of plants of each variety now. In the Autumn I cut off little plantlets from the outside of the plant, make sure the cut is clean and put them in a mix of approximately half compost, half gritty sand. I just leave them standing around outside in the winter and find that at least 33% have rooted in late spring/early Summer. I just judge them ready to pot up when they've started growing. A year and a half later the plant is very big and will have loads of new 'plantlets' to start all over again. Some varieties obviously work better than others, I have not had much luck with the black ones, but the caramel-type colours are very successful indeed. Hope you don't become as obsessed with propagating them as I am!

  • image  In the spring we lift ours, cut them down, and replant deeper, was told this by Heuchera expert (gold Medalist winners) also you can trim them again later on in the year, I do agree they do respond well by taking cuttings, well some do!! Do watch out for the dreaded vine weevil, they love them.....

  • davids10davids10 Posts: 894

    what are the cultural conditions? i have friends who grow them with basically no care-benign neglect at its best. mine languish and decline-slowly and miserably-if i love them or hate them they are always the one that got away

  • AliPAliP Posts: 64

    Thanks for the advice! I suspect I may well become obsessed ingrid they just have amazing foliage variety and are handy little plants. Pokadotdaisy I have already had problems with vine weevil when they've been in pots but not in the open ground as yet... fingers crossed! I can see a two pronged attack of propagation and replanting deeper! image David, mine grow in abit of shade and I try not to let them dry out and that seems to do them ok, to be honest I sound a little like the friends you mention that pretty much neglect them.

  • my penstemon's are very tall and caught the frost slightly when can i cut them back??

  • Where do the vine weevils live when they are not eating my polyanthus and heuchera's? They seem to turn up from no where..

  • Dolly11Dolly11 Posts: 14

    l never cut my penstemons till all the frost has gone then l cut them right back. l live in a very cold area in the west-mids and sometimes lose them, the very hardy ones live.

    but l go to garden centre's and buy any they are selling off l usually end up with some lovely plants but l must admit l have very green fingers, l took four cuttings from a old deep red rose in a garden that the house was up for sale three of them survive they have the most beautiful scent, also a yellow one from spare ground it is a lovely plant very tall plant, the originals were disposed of.

  • Hello rucklidge,

    Have a look at our vine weevil advice. As you'll see they spend a lot of time hiding in soil / compost. As you say, they do favour polyanthus and heuchera. In a nursery where I worked we made a point of vigilantly checking the 'h' section at certain times of year. I have recently discovered that Americans call them snout beetles, which is rather sweet.

    Emma

    gardenersworld.com team

  • Minnie2Minnie2 Posts: 4

    I love heucheras, the advice I was given was to divide them every three years or so as you would with lots of perennials- discarding old woody bits in the middle of the plant- and replanting more vigorous outer parts.

  • Can anybody help, something is eating the new shots on mine, (ones planted in the garden, we do have field mouse, as they have had a few crocus bulds, ones that are in pots, the outer leaves have gone dry, do I cut them off to new growth light? Any hints and tips would be great.
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