Heuchera breeding

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• Subject: [GWL] Heuchera breeding
• From: Pride of Place Plants r*@pacificcoast.net
• Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 14:58:27 -0800
• List-archive: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/private/gardenwriters/>

The Breeding Work of Mr. Charles Oliver.  The beginning to Date
I started my Heuchera breeding with crosses between red flowered and white flowered Heuchera x brizoides crossed in the mid '80s with Heuchera pubescens, which I grew from seed from the shale barrens, about 90 miles east of here in Allegany Co., MD, and Mineral Co., WV. My earliest selection from these crosses was Heuchera 'White Marble,' which I then crossed with H. 'Montrose Ruby.' itself a hybrid between H. 'Palace Purple' and H. 'Dale's Strain.' This gave some good plants with white flowers and silvered purple leaves, the best of which is H. 'Quilter's Joy.' At the same time I had made some hybrids between the Rocky Mountain dwarf species H. hallii and H. pulchella. The best of these crossed with 'Quilter's Joy' (early '90s) produced the 'Petite' series: 'Petite Pearl Fairy,' 'Petite Marbled Burgundy,' etc. Another group of hybrids resulted from crosses between 'Quilter's Joy' and H. brizoides 'Chatterbox'. The latter parent brought in pink to 'Regina.' 'Regina' crossed into the petites (mid '90s) produced some very good forms, with showy flowers and well silvered leaves: 'Silver Scrolls,' 'Raspberry Ice,' 'Silver Lode,' and 'Silver Light.' 

 Recently, I have done some crosses between this last set and superior forms of H. villosa. 'Frosted Violet' is a child of this combination. In the last couple of years I have been seeking out good forms of wild Heuchera pubescens from various sites in West Virginia and using those in new crosses with my best hybrid forms. I have found wild plants with nicely ruffled leaves and extra large flowers, and these traits will be in the new hybrids that we will introduce in the next couple of years. The wild forms should also bring in extra cold hardiness. In the past ruffled forms have not been very hardy, since this trait is derived from H. micrantha, which is not hardy in the northeast US. (H. 'Palace Purple,' is, of course, hardy, but this is not a selection of H. micrantha, as recognizes in England, but H. villosa, a large species of the Ohio Valley and upper southeast US.)
Mr. Dan Heims began with 'Montrose Ruby' and then added Heuchera micrantha and H. 'Dale's Strain' plus some of my varieties to get his line of hybrids. I have used 'Montrose Ruby' and H. brizoides plus the Rocky Mt. alpines plus eastern H. pubescens and H. villosa.  Mr Heims tends to breed almost completely for foliage; I have been trying to produce plants with showy flowers as well as attractive foliage.
There is an almost complete listing of our Heuchera hybrids on our web site at www.theprimrosepath.com/listings/specialties/heuchera.html  Our Featured Plants site has information on the origin of garden heuchera and profiles of some of our Best introductions.  If you would like to be up-dated on the Very Newest of  Charles and Marge Oliver's introductions please visit  http://home.a1usa.net/~primrose/Heuchera/heuchera.html   or www.icangarden.com/NewEden or www.prideofplaceplants.com

Sincerely
Rick
Pride of Place Plants Inc.