

I am going for ‘subtle’ this week. If you want flamboyance, there is Chelsea!
At this time of the year, almost every time I walk round the garden, something new is starting into flower, and naturally my attention is caught by the colour and exuberance of it all: roses, clematis, euphorbia, iris, paeonies … the list is endless.
My subject today is not so noticeable, but it has a quiet, dependable presence, and our garden would be the poorer without it.
Walk into most garden centres (not nurseries!) and you will be regaled with rows of different heucheras. All those garish, unnatural foliage colours almost give me a headache, it’s as if there is a competition to find the most lurid hue.
Heuchera ‘Brown Finch’ is not usually first on the shopping list of heucheraholics. Its unusual terracotta coloured flowers rise elegantly (to 60cms) above cool, silver mottled foliage, they are long lasting and a magnet for bees. I don’t mean to go on about bees, but their presence not only gives us much pleasure, they are quite simply, vital to life itself.
Dappled shade is where I like to grow ‘Brown Finch’ and it seems to be particularly good at coping under shrubs and trees which is always a useful attribute.

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