Categories
Great Plants this Month Autumn

Heuchera villosa ‘Autumn Bride’

alum root ‘Autumn Bride’

Louise Sims

This not-so-common heuchera has often been a contender for my ‘special plant’ slot. I rather dislike that expression ‘all year round interest’ and it’s an unworthy first description of ‘Autumn Bride’ but this great favourite of mine does make a huge contribution to our garden scene and never more so than at this time of the year, when it becomes a focal point in our autumn border.

I have also chosen it today because I would like to say thank you to Graham Gough, owner of the marvellous Marchants Hardy Plants where I first set eyes on ‘Autumn Bride’ and which sadly is closing at the end of October.

Whenever I visited Graham’s nursery in East Sussex, I never missed the opportunity to explore his garden at the same time, because this was where one could see growing, many of the plants that were for sale in his nursery. There was always something unusual and interesting to be discovered and I can remember exactly the first time I saw ‘Autumn Bride’, and immediately raced off to ask Graham what it was, and did he have any in stock!

There is nothing flimsy about this heuchera, it makes a large clump of bold, mid green foliage, (more evergreen than not and sometimes with autumn tints) and from summer onwards it bears numerous, tall, very showy spires of ivory white flowers. These last well into autumn but don’t be over zealous and cut them off early because the seedheads persist through the winter and look beautiful under frost. It grows very happily in part shade and is tolerant of most growing conditions.

It will only need a little tidying up in early spring. This is a slowly spreading plant and once your clump has increased a little you will be able to pull off pieces to give to your friends!

Heuchera villosa ‘Autumn Bride’ – bursting out in the autumn border with strength and beauty

NB Louise has published a beautifully produced book of her plant profiles – A Plant for Each Week of the Year. It costs £9.99 and is for sale in our online shop here.

More NB If you’re not already a subscriber and you’d like a bit more gardening chitchat from the3growbags, please type your email address here and we’ll send you a new post every Saturday morning.

By the3growbags

We're three sisters who love gardening, plants and even the science of horticulture but we're not all experts. We'd love everyone even remotely interested in their gardens to be part of our blogsite.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.