Heuchera villosa Black Pearl

The Heuchera 'Black Pearl', with its ebony foliage, is the darkest variety of heuchera currently available. It retains its shiny and scalloped leaves, which are barely violet-black, throughout the year, both in summer and winter, revealing a lovely mauve-pink underside with intense undulations. The older leaves have an elegant silver sheen. Above the foliage, arched stems bear a cloud-like white and pink flowering, with an infinite lightness, in the heart of summer. This heuchera thrives in fertile and moist soil. It tolerates heat quite well, but not intense sunlight. In the garden, it forms a fantastic ground cover and in pots, it stands out from the crowd.

The Heuchera Primo 'Black Pearl' belongs to the Saxifragaceae family. It is a superb descendant of Heuchera villosa, a low-maintenance and very hardy species native to the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. This particularly dark foliage cultivar was recently developed in the United States. It is part of a series of vigorous hybrids that quickly make an impact in the garden as well as in pots.

The plant reaches an average height of 30 cm (12in) (foliage) and a width of 50 cm (20in) in 3-4 years. This Heuchera forms a beautiful spread-out cushion-like clump that is dense. Its evergreen foliage is its major asset: its round leaves with lobed and undulated lamina have a remarkably enduring colour that does not brown in the sun. Their colour resembles onyx, ebony, and jet, with some dark purple highlights. A cool glaze covers the older leaves. The flowering, light and airy, begins in July and continues until September. The white-cream bell-shaped flowers with pink calyx are arranged along an upright and arched stem.

The Heuchera 'Black Pearl' is an astonishing ground cover for partially shaded areas of the garden, even slightly dry in summer. Its foliage remains decorative throughout the year, and its flowering brings a lot of lightness to any setting. For example, pair it with the blue blooms of forget-me-nots, Omphalodes verna, brunneras, ajugas, columbines, and bellflowers, or with the lush foliage of hostas, but always place away from the sun's heat. Its combination with foamflowers is always successful. It grows well in pots, alongside grasses like Carex testacea and Agropyron magellanicum. In a small shaded rockery, it will accompany small ferns like Adiantum pedatum or the beautiful marbled foliage of Asarum splendens. When planted en masse, it forms an extraordinary border along an east-facing pathway.