Heucheras and Heucherellas: Coral Bells and Foamy Bells

If you're a fan of fantastic foliage plants for the garden, Heucheras and Heucherellas is a must-have. The extensive gallery of color photographs shows the amazing range of leaf shapes and colors, and the A-Z encyclopedia of cultivars offers clear and concise descriptions. Especially interesting is the chapter "Breeding Heuchera," which gives gardeners some great insights into the traits that particular species can contribute to crosses, such as leaf silvering, hardiness, and heat tolerance. There are also inspiring ideas for making the most of these beautiful plants in the garden, in containers, and in arrangements. Every perennial gardener needs a copy of this book!

Dan Heims and Grahame Ware's Heucheras and Heucherellas is a superior gardening book for sophisticated and professional gardeners alike. Why? Because in this 208 page book everything you want to know about these two genera are described in great detail. The book grabs you right off by showing over 55 pages of superior colored photographs in alphabetical order. How clever. Usually colored photographs are in the middle of a book. But not here. With the result that you want to dash out to your nearest nursery and find all of the plants depicted. This is followed by a series of chapters on Heucheras in the wild and the citations found in old publications, a list of all the species and their descriptions, how to hybridize this intriguing genus and very practical advise on how to use the new cultivars in the landscape. What is not to like about this book. Try finding a comprehensive list of all species and cvs on the Web. Good luck. This book has it all. It appeals to the professional horticulturist and the avid amateur, who often is as informed as the professional. For those gardeners who are beginners, I say read this book and enrich yourself with horticultural knowlegde. Soon botanic names, mentionings of hybrids, tetraploids, and other botanical lingo will seem as familiar to you as how to make a bechamel sauce recipe in a cookbook. My one criticism would be the chapter on the discovery of the genera. The language seemed very stiff in contrast with the informal tone of the rest of the book. It was almost like foot notes of someone's thesis. So take the time to Google some of the plant hunters mentioned and you will be very much intrigued by the incredible hardships many of them endured. A small criticism as the book does not deal with that subject matter. Since the publication of this book new cvs have been introduced to the trade. But that should not stop you from treasuring this book. It has all the fundamentals in place and the name of another cv you can always add to the index in the back of the book. So 5 stars it is.

As I grow in my admiration for the hybridizers of heuchera, I find myself wanting to know much more. This book if full of pictures and good background information. It may not have all the answers but it is the fist place to start this journey. You will be amazed at this little supper star, called Heuchera. Hostas were the number one perennial, however thanks to Terra Nova, hostas must give Heucheras a wide girth. Heuchera is todays number one perennial, and by about five months.

I am a professional landscape designer, and I have become a huge fan of Heucheras and Heucherellas. Their incredible variety of foliage colors makes them a wonderful plant to use in many situations. They are simple to maintain, easy to grow, and come in foliage colors from bright golden chartreuse with magenta midribs, lush greens with gorgeous natural-looking pink flowers, to deep velvety purples and rich chocolate ruffles. This is a truly wonderful resource for fans of these plants. The first part of the book has over 50 pages filled with multiple color photos on each page, of every kind of Heuchera or Heucherella you might want to know about. This is great for getting a glimpse of some of the newer varieties that haven't reached our local nurseries yet, and for comparing the subtle and not so subtle variations in their foliage, flower, and habit. I haven't found any Heucheras that are available to me that are not covered in this book, and he covers a lot that I haven't seen yet. The text which comes after the truly awe-inspiring array of photos in the beginning is helpful and interesting. He gives a lot of background information that the average home gardener might skip over (history, propagation, how they are named and botanically classed), but that I personally found fascinating. He also gets right to the meat of the matter in his discussions of pest problems and how to solve them, how to combine some of the outrageous foliage colors found in Heucheras and Heucherellas with other garden plants, and how to design with them and use them successfully in the garden. There is also a reference portion where he discusses each plant and variety, its parentage and what that tells us about what they like in the garden, and describes many varieties in great and useful detail. I have been waiting for a book on Heucheras for a really long time, and I am so glad that this one was so well worth the wait.

This book is an ideal reference for gardening professionals or those home gardeners who have fallen in love with the broad range of heucheras and heucherellas that have become available. It would be an ideal addition to a community library as well. The many pages of color photos of the different cultivars are like having a catalog for plant shopping. The cultivation instructions are good and the enthusiasm of the author for his subject shines through.