Whether you pronounce it “HUE-ker-uh” or “WHO-ker-uh,” one of the easiest native plants to ease into a mixed suburban garden is Heuchera, also known as alumroot or coral bells. The perennial evergreen clump, a foot or two high, has grapelike leaves topped by slender, frothily flowering stems in the spring. A few varieties have flowers that last into summer or fall.
Like most natives, they need good drainage to avoid root rot. So if your soil is clay, plant them in mounds. Most varieties grow best in light or dappled shade, or at least with afternoon shade, so they’re ideal around the driplines of trees. They can even be grown under redwoods, where with good drainage they’re tolerant of occasional to regular water.
Smaller Heucheras look lovely bordering paths in part shade, where the clumps form a neat, informal edge and the flowering stems add seasonal drama.
If you want a few container plants as accents in shadier corners, Heucheras adapt well to container culture, where they will need watering a couple of times a week. Place them near a window so you can watch hummingbirds visiting the flowers.
Planted in garden beds with other perennials, Heucheras stand out when their white, pink or red flowers are in bloom, especially when planted in massed groups.
The 2-foot-wide clumps of island alumroot, Heuchera maxima, are decorative in themselves, with scalloped 4-inch roundish leaves, green with lighter marbling rising from the base. But in spring, profuse clouds of creamy flowers appear on spikes a foot or two above the foliage, suggesting snow drifts. The largest member of the clan, island alumroot, tolerates clay soil better than other Heucheras and can flower in denser shade than other varieties. As a groundcover under native oaks, it thrives in high, dappled shade and is drought tolerant.
Hairy alumroot, Heuchera pilosissima, is reputed to be deer-resistant because its leaves are covered with less-palatable white hairs. Its white flowers age to pink.
The most colorful Heucheras are named cultivars, many of them half-native hybrids with Arizona’s native coral bells. In general, they’re half the size of island alumroot, have a longer bloom season, need occasional to regular garden water (they may go summer dormant with no water) and a few can tolerate a little more sun. Flower colors of some of the more popular varieties are pink, Wendy; red, Santa Ana Cardinal; magenta, Canyon Belle; apricot-pink, Chiqui; and pink, Martha Roderick. Leaf colors and patterns vary as well: Painted Lady has silver marbling and a purple reverse, Genevieve has gray marbling.
With age, the crowns grow up and out of the soil and the thick leaf stems elongate, so Heucheras will need to be cut back or divided every three years or so in the spring or fall. When you notice your plants getting smaller and less vigorous with fewer flowers, cut back to 1-inch-high stubs or dig up the whole plant, cut apart the stems branching off the main woody stem, and plant them separately with at least two to three leaf nodes underground. If the stem pieces do not already have roots, plant them in containers with a soilless mix and keep moist until they root.
Tanya Kucak gardens organically. E-mail her at [email protected].
