Plant profile for Heucherella Sweet Tea

In our gardens we often had Tiarella and Heuchera, This is the first time we have had a go at Heuchella. To state the obvious, it is a cross between the two. Heucherella Sweet Tea adds a fantastic foliage contrast to the other plants.

The large maple like leaves are coloured with interesting shades of orange, amber and gold. In this part of the world it is regarded as semi evergreen, just holding on to leaves in the dead of Winter but looking a bit tatty.

In early Spring the plant starts to freshen up with the colours intensifying and becoming deeper as Summer progresses. It has these white foamy flowers which last over a long period from late Spring through until the end of Summer. It is all about the foliage though.

Here in our Fife garden Heucherella Sweet Tea is doing very well in this sheltered position converted from what was our drive. This is the plants third season and showing no sign of deterioration.

In our Aberdeen garden Heuchera struggled to come through the Winter, in fact they generally died off. Tiarella performed pretty well, we never did try Heucherella.

I have to admit, I am finding that some borderline hardy plants do seem to stand more of a chance of survival here in our Fife garden compared to those in Aberdeen. Although! It is not exactly noticeable, I guess the temperature if taken over a year, may well show our Fife location to be a couple of degrees higher than it is in Aberdeen. Having said that, our elevated position often provides us with bracing winds which often spoils what would be a pleasant Summer day. However, the courtyard being sheltered is a bonus.

Height

Flower height. Approximately 40 cm/15 in. Foliage – 10 cm/4 in.

Hardiness

Fully hardy in UK

Flowers and foliage

Foamy white flower spikes in Summer. Ornamental foliage in shades of orange, Cinnamon and bronze and deeply veined. In Summer the leaf colour deepens before lightening again in Autumn.

Position and soil

Any reasonable garden soil, performs best in partial shade or full shade.

Containers

Performs very well in containers

Buy —- Buy

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September in our Fife garden

I must say, I am fond of the Begonia Buffey plunked on top of the terracotta urn.

I got them as plug plants from a mail order company a couple of years ago. I enquired as to whether or not they would develop tubers. It was disappointing to be told they did not produce tubers and just treat them as annuals. On arrival, I noticed the roots were bound in with a tight netting. I removed this netting before potting them up and by Autumn they did indeed produce small tubers which I wrapped up in newspaper and stored them in the garage over Winter. Lo and behold, it worked.

The Rowan tree Sorbus Commixta was planted in the front garden 30 months ago.

It didn’t really suit the front garden which now looks better with Prunus Serrula in its place.

Sorbus Commixta was planted in the courtyard border last year. It produced a scattering of berries. Look at it this year, the young branches are weighed down with these small fruits.

At this moment the Rowan tree which outshines the other five in the garden is Joseph Rock.

Just two years since Joseph Rock was planted in the back garden. It was just about five feet tall, and we moaned as to how long it would take before making any impact.

Well, see how it has grown, and those yellow berries are amazing.

The Anemone Dreaming Swan has been in bloom for two months.

My blog entry for Anemone dreaming Swan