Says who?

I bought one plant of Heuchera x villosa 'Brownies' in 2008. It grew so well for me that I began to divide it and spread it around. It never frost-heaved, had pests or seemed to need any additional moisture. Eventually I created a couple of large sweeps of 'Brownies' in spots where I needed a no-maintenance ground cover that didn't really call attention to itself. 

I went online the other day to confirm its identify and discovered my experience with 'Brownies' is not the same as that observed at the Mt. Cuba Trial Garden. 

"Unfortunately, the floral display was unimpressive due to the floppiness of the tall, white inflorescences," was their opinion on their website. They felt its strength was all in its foliage. i love the very tall wands of white flowers 'Brownies' produces right now when many Heucheras are winding down flower production. They are among the longest flower stems of any Heuchera I grow; easily two feet long.

Recently it rained for six hours; mostly nice and gentle with only a couple of strong downpours. The last couple of days it's been very windy and gusty. All of which is to say the long flower wands on my 'Brownies' are still upright, despite our weather and the experience of Mt. Cuba. Plants clearly don't pay attention to experts or the written word.

Comments

[Kathy from Cold Climate Gardening]

Mt. Cuba is a lot warmer climate than Wisconsin and that can have an effect on the sturdiness of the flower stalks.

[Chavli]

Lucky you for having just the perfect conditions for the 'brownies' to succeed.
Six hours of rain sounds like heaven to me.

[Kris P]

The 'Brownies" found the right home with you it seems! I've yet to find a Heuchera that's truly happy in my garden - the closest fit is Heuchera maxima, which is a California native with rather boring foliage.

[Barbara H.]

Hah! I'm not surprised that your plants are surpassing the expected experience.

[danger garden]

I'm sorry but I got distracted by that part about it raining for 6 hours...

[Old Lady Gardener]

Its always been my contention that "the plants don't know what it says in the books". I do what I want, when and how I want to in the garden. I have successes and failures, same as if I'd read the books.
I was wondering if your shade is denser than Mt. Cuba's trial area, resulting in longer stems because they are reaching for light?? Regardless, your carpet of blooming heucheras is lovely!

[Beth@PlantPostings]

They're beautiful! Lucky you...something kept eating my Heucheras, so I gave up. Love them, though!

[hb]

Different climate, different result.

The perfect example in my climate is Castor Bean, an invasive evergreen alien tree, while in the PNW it's a very ornamental tall annual with a growing season too short to set seed. A pest in one climate, a gem in another.

Your 'Brownie's are lovely. That includes the flowers!

[Linda Brazill]

DANGER — Six hours of rain is not that unusual here. We often get (or used to get) a day or two or three in a row of nice rain that was great for the garden and did not cause flooding. 

[Linda Brazill]

A NOTE TO ALL OF YOU— All the comments on this post have been fascinating and helpful. I usually look at Missouri Botanic Garden, Mt. Cuba and Chicago Botanical Gardens for plant info. You would think it would occur to me that the Mt. Cuba trials might not be all that useful in my climate. CBG is a great source of info because they are so much closer to me. 

[Jerry]

Oh good! You got rain! We're still waiting for ours. Almost 4 months and counting. I like how the white flowers pop and contrast with the foliage - definitely not a floppy mess.

[Linda Brazill]

JERRY — ​It has been so hard physically and emotionally on gardeners (or at least this gardener), let alone the garden, to not get rain. I can't even begin to imagine months with nothing. I can't really complain since we got two inches a week ago. But it looks like that's it for this month. Sept. and Oct. used to always have wonderful rainy days but not recently. With three days in the 90°s this week, I was doing a lot of watering.