This oval terracotta bowl was calling out for a planting as dumpy as its form, yet with a bit of a statement at the same time. Planted up, it can easily be moved on to a table or edge of a wall to be enjoyed at a higher level. There are some extraordinary colourways available in heucheras, heucherellas and tiarellas; they all lend themselves to this simple layering, so it’s worth experimenting with different combinations.
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How to achieve the look
Container and composition
I bought this unassuming container in a garden centre. Its simplicity and dumpy shape makes it the ideal foil for this composition, made up of layers of late-summer and autumnal foliage.
The majority of the foliage in this combination looks very similar. The heucheras and heucherellas are sometimes harder to place in beds and borders, but here they find a happy home in a container, their leaves jostling and complementing each other at the same time.
The tea-coloured tones of x Heucherella ‘Sweet Tea’ have a kind of colour-shifting alchemy going on. These enormous star-like leaves shine ever brighter in shades of cinnamon and burnt orange as autumn approaches. Then, just when you think the colour can’t get any more intense, they start to get darker. Come autumn, they brighten up once more. This strange behaviour makes them the perfect partner for other related foliage: the ostentatious black ruffles of Heuchera ‘Black Pearl’ are an excellent foil to the shining patterns of Heuchera ‘Frosted Violet Dream’ and the silvery shapes of x Heucherella ‘Pink Fizz’.
Cultivation and care
All of these plants enjoy a moist soil and will be happy in a peat-free, loam-based compost, provided you keep an eye on the pot to ensure it doesn’t dry out, and snip off the flower spires as they go over. It will also tolerate a little bit of shade.
Plants
x Heucherella ‘Pink Fizz’ Large, deeply lobed, green leaves with a light silvering and heavy wine-red to deep-purple veining. Pure-pink flowers emerge out of hot-pink buds. May – October. 50cm x 50cm. RHS H6, USDA 5a-9b.
Heuchera ‘Black Pearl’ Jet-black ruffled leaves and slightly pinkish-white flowers. May – October. 30cm x 30cm. RHS H6.
Bergenia ‘Pink Dragonfly’ Oval, evergreen leaves with clusters of vivid-pink spring flowers. 30cm x 30cm. RHS H6, USDA 4a-9b.
Heuchera ‘Frosted Violet Dream’ Serrated foliage of deepest purple with hue of violet blue. Its long spires of white flowers are pink in bud. 60cm x 60cm. RHS H6, USDA 4a-9b.
x Heucherella ‘Sweet Tea’ Star-like lobed leaves, intensely coloured in a brighter coral-brown through summer, then fading as autumn approaches. Spires of foam-like white flowers. May – October. 45cm x 35cm. RHS H6.
