Sacramento Digs Gardening: Coral bells with a difference

This Primo Wild Rose Heuchera from Proven Winners is a lovely wine purple. These plants brighten up shady spots. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

New varieties come in eye-popping colors

This nostalgic favorite has a bold new look – thanks to clever breeding.

The little flowers above the leaves add

a cute touch in spring.

Coral bells, the common name for the Heuchera family, are relatively easy to hybridize. Different species and parents readily cross with each other, creating new varieties with all sorts of interesting characteristics. There are fewer than 40 species of Heuchera (including several native to California and the Southwest), but hundreds of named hybridized varieties.

Their often-variegated foliage comes in almost every color, from creamy white to silvery charcoal. As a bonus, charming sprigs of flowers – the bells – sprout from the low-growing mass of attractive deeply cut leaves.

Great choices for a low-water garden, Heucheras are naturally drought-tolerant perennials; they need only weekly or twice monthly irrigation. Most bloom readily in partial shade. And they’re super low care; just snip off the spent flowers. Like most perennials, they die back in winter, but come on strong each spring.

My favorite Heuchera right now adds a brilliant splash of wine purple in a shady spot next to the patio. Part of the Primo series from Proven Winners, Primo Wild Rose holds its unusual color throughout the year. The vivid leaves are veined in dark gray and glisten with a metallic touch. The pink flowers? They’re just cute.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

shade gardening shade plants gardening Sacramento Proven Winners coral bells Heuchera perennials

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Garden Checklist for week of May 5

Survey your garden after the May 4 rainstorm. Heavy rain and gusty winds can break the neck of large flowers such as roses. Also:

* Keep an eye on new transplants or seedlings; they could take a pounding from the rain.

* Watch out for powdery mildew. Warmth following moist conditions can cause this fungal disease to “bloom,” too. If you see a leaf that looks like it’s dusted with powdered sugar, snip it off.

* After the storm, start setting out tomato transplants, but wait on the peppers and eggplants (they want warmer nights). Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Don’t wait; plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Harvest cabbage, lettuce, peas and green onions.

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