Heuchera 'Chocolate Ruffles'
The chocolate brown, textured, evergreen foliage of heucheras planted to contrast against pale containers, variegated ivies or strappy-leaved sedges make this cultivar a great plant for autumn and winter. Find it in the Container Garden and along Witan Street.
Vital statistics
- Common name
- Coral flower 'Choclate Ruffles'
- Family
- Saxifragaceae
- Height & spread
- Up to 75cm (30in) x 45cm (18in)
- Form
- Perennial
- Soil
- Fertile, moist but well-drained, neutral soil
- Aspect
- Sun or partial shade
- Hardiness
- Fully hardy to -15C (5F)
Heuchera
Heuchera is a genus of about 55 species of evergreen and semi-evergreen perennials from woodland and rocky sites in North America, particularly the Rocky Mountains, and a few species from Mexico.
The name Heuchera is derived from the name Johann Heinrich von Heucher, (1677 - 1747), a professor of medicine at Wittenberg in Germany.
Heucheras are grown predominantly for their brightly coloured foliage in a range of deep reds, browns, purples and greens.
Heuchera 'Chocolate Ruffles'
This plant of garden origin produces broadly ovate, deeply five to nine lobed, crinkled cocoa-brown leaves of up to 10cm long. In early summer it bears panicles of small white flowers on purple spikes. It is ideal for use as ground cover or grown in an herbaceous, mixed or shrub border.
Cultivation
Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles’ should be grown in fertile, moist, but well drained soil in sun or partial shade.
Mulch annually as the woody rootstock tends to push upwards with time. Eventually, in late summer or early autumn lift or replant with the crown above the soil surface or replace with new plants.
Heucheras are vulnerable to leaf eelworms, vine weevil larvae and a gall causing infection, which may be troublesome.
Propagation
Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles’ has Plant Breeders' Rights. This makes it is illegal to commercially propagate it without the necessary permission.
Species Heuchera can be propagated by seed or division. Cultivars of Heuchera can be propagated only by division as seed would not come true to type.