Heuchera Vienna

The Heuchera 'Vienna' is a very beautifully coloured variety, with leaves that range from purple-pink to orange and paprika marbled with white-grey and veined with red to purple. They maintain this orange colouring for a long time before becoming more bronze in winter. Their undersides are blood red in color. Above the foliage, a coral pink flowering appears in late spring with infinite delicacy. Vigorous but demanding, this heuchera requires fertile and moist soil. It tolerates heat fairly well, but not intense sunlight. In the garden, it will form a magnificent ground cover and on the terrace, some quite fantastic pots.

The 'Vienna' heuchera is a rhizomatous perennial plant belonging to the saxifrage family. This variety is part of a series of recent hybrids selected in the U.S.A for their intensely coloured foliage throughout the year. This variety 'Vienna' forms a regular, dense and spreading clump that is 30 cm (12in) in height, 30-40 cm (12-16in) in diameter, and 40-45 cm (0 and 16in) in flower height. The growth of this small vigorous plant is quite fast. The color varies significantly with the seasons and temperature, in a palette dominated by pink, red, and orange tones. The foliage is evergreen in winter, except in very cold climates. The flowering takes place from May-June to July, in the form of panicles of tiny bell-shaped flowers in shades of pink-orange. This plant has a shallow root system, making it quite sensitive to water shortage.

The Heuchera 'Vienna' works wonders at the foot of English roses with white or orange flowers, which its pink-orange foliage will particularly enhance. It will also have a very nice effect as a border plant in beds with a dominant red color: paired with lobelia 'Queen Victoria' or 'Ruby Port' columbine, or cosmos 'Chocolat'. It can also be used as ground cover to fill the base of spring-flowering shrubs and will thrive in a cool rockery. In a border, it will bring a lot of elegance to the garden. Pair it with acid green foliage: lady's mantle, Carex, a small fern like Adiantum pedatum, or the beautiful marbled foliage of Asarum splendens. This heuchera will also match well with the blue flowers of forget-me-nots, Omphalodes verna, brunneras, ajugas etc. Heuchera is an ideal plant for filling pots, containers, and flower boxes.

Heucheras with trembling stems and tiny bells were very fashionable in the 19th century in all European gardens. It was the impressionist painters who named them "Painter's Despair", having undoubtedly tried in vain to represent them.