A Sea of Immensurable Heucheras

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It's been a good year for the heucheras.. both those in my garden and for my friends Jooles and Sean at Heucheraholics who have reaped in the RHS riches of Silver Gilt at Chelsea, Gold at Hampton Court and Tatton and Best in Show at Wisley's recent Autumn Flower show.  They've been mentioned on my bloggywog so much this year its beginning to look like the Sea of Immensurable Heucheras.

The Cake Tent!!!!

So with the promise of tea, cake in Sean's elaborate hired tent, and a snoop around Heuchera HQ, the Socks made their way to the New Forest for Heucheraholics Open Day.   Somehow we had imagined a quiet leafy glade with a few polytunnels and tables with heucheras dotted around so were pretty impressed with the endless stretch of heucheras of every hue!

The Sock's personal preference is for heucheras in pots - a single one of the new varieties with large attractive leaves like 'Geisha's Fan' or a three colour combination looking bright all through the winter. They are at their best primped and plump in a pot or peeping over the edge of a border. The Sock is less taken with the way they sometimes appear in municipal plantings - bunched together as ground cover, losing their definition in what the Bedsock describes as "a mess of straggly leaves hiding the mass of snails underneath."

You may find this hard to believe but not everyone loves heucheras!  Amongst others, adorable grump Plantmadnige has made much of his heuchera hatred - but the Sock believes there has been a slight thaw in relations recently.  For this reason, one of the types Plantmadnige is most enamoured of, has been named after him!

Plantmadnige has publically admitted to an increasing obsession with solenostemon (coleus to you and me!!) which shows that beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.  And here, just for Nigel,  is a picture of the solenostemon collection currently in Wisley Glasshouse.

With names like Solenostemon 'Pineapplette' they are never going to appeal to the girlie market in the same way as heucheras 'Chocolate ruffles', 'Lemon chiffon', 'Lipstick' 'Fire chief' and 'Sexysocks'!