Heuchera Are Native To The U.S. And An Award-Winning Perennial Plant

Jan 18, 2017

I was hiking around Blue Ridge, Georgia, not long ago and came across a few terrific-looking heuchera, or coral bells, which I had only seen previously for sale in garden centers. All heuchera species are native to the United States, including this Heuchera villosa, which is native to the Southeast from Arkansas to Georgia and north to New York.

Heuchera was the Perennial Plant Association’s Perennial Plant of the Year in 1991, and since then, more hybrids and varieties, colors and variegations have been produced than we possibly could have ever imagined.

When you look at a plant tag, or a plant for that matter, it is next to impossible to identify which ones have DNA from a species native to your state or region. But then there are times when you think, “By George, there it is!”

A variety like ‘Caramel’ is labeled as a hybrid variety of Heuchera villosa. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying everyone in the country should choose ‘Caramel’ or one of the other varieties that might be identified as H. villosa. But to me, it does give a clue that it might have a little more heat tolerance, since Savannah, Georgia, is far from ground zero for the heuchera.

Heuchera are considered perennial in zones 4 through 8 and tend to be evergreen in the warmer climates. The plant prefers moist, fertile, organic, rich soil that drains freely. In the landscape, promote sun to partial sun in the North and partial sun to shade in the South. If you are in the South, you must try them as a sunny, cool-season component plant, similar to what you might do for a flowering kale, cabbage or mustard. It will look attractive until around the end of June, which is long after the brassicas have bolted and flowered.

Treasure the foliage, but know that the plants produce tall, airy flowers in pink, coral, red or white. Many have foliage so colorful and ornately shaped that it will cause you to stop dead in your tracks, and you couldn't care less if they ever bloom. These spikes of blossoms do bring in hummingbirds. The plants reach 12 to 16 inches tall and should be spaced 15 to 28 inches apart or as recommended by the variety tag. Varieties like ‘Amber Waves,’ ‘Caramel,’ ‘Crème Brulee,’ ‘Georgia Peach,’ ‘Lava Lamp,’ ‘Mocha,’ ‘Palace Purple’ and ‘Peach Melba’ are just a tiny sampling of those heuchera that have mesmerized me the last few years.

No matter where you live in the country, you have a season where the heuchera can perform as a stunning filler plant in your mixed containers. That being said, it’s still rare in my travels for me to find them used in such an artistic endeavor. It is also still rare that I find heuchera in the landscape, as gardeners usually choose other materials.

Heuchera is an outstanding plant that deserves a place in the sun, partial shade or shade. Plant them along woodland trails, in front of shrubs. Great combinations can be made with wood fern or autumn fern. Let your artistic nature shine and use them with hostas. But if you are in the South, you must try them as a sunny, cool-season component plant.

Source: uga.edu

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”