Forever Red Heuchera

Forever Red Heuchera (Heuchera 'Forever Red') is a small mounding perennial grown entirely for its leaves: deeply ruffled, near black red, and holding that colour all year rather than for one short season. The clump sits at about 30cm tall and 40cm wide, with slim stems of small white flowers rising above it in spring. Very few plants put this much dark colour into a shaded border.

Why you'll love it

• Dark red foliage year round. The colour comes from the leaves, so the plant looks the same in July as it does in November.
• Small enough for tight spaces. At 30cm by 40cm it fits a courtyard bed, a narrow strip beside a path or a mixed container.
• It earns its place in shade. Ruffled dark leaves lift a shaded bed where variegated and green foliage plants tend to look flat.
• Frost hardy. Cold snaps do not damage it, and the foliage often deepens in colour through winter.
• Bees use the flowers. The spring spikes of small white bells are modest to look at but genuinely worked by bees and butterflies.

Where it works best

Borders and edging. Plant 40cm apart for a continuous dark edge along a path or the front of a bed. That spacing lets each clump show its ruffled shape without gaps between them.

Pots and containers. One plant in a 250mm pot, or three in a 400mm, gives a full mound. Heucheras also work well as the dark base layer under a potted feature plant.

Mass planting. A drift of nine or twelve reads as a solid block of colour, useful in a small garden where a shrub would be too heavy.

Growing Forever Red Heuchera in Australia

Position and climate. Morning sun with afternoon shade gives the best colour and the least leaf scorch. This is a plant for cool temperate and warm temperate gardens. It is frost hardy, but it struggles through long humid summers, so tropical and subtropical gardeners should expect a short lived plant.

Soil. Rich, free draining soil with plenty of compost. Set the crown level with the surface, never buried, because a crown sitting in damp soil is the usual cause of failure.

Water and feed. It is not drought tolerant. Keep the soil consistently moist through summer, mulch lightly to hold that moisture, and feed with a controlled release fertiliser in early spring.

Grooming. Pull off tired outer leaves through the year and cut spent flower stems at the base. Every two or three years the woody crown lifts above the soil, so lift the plant, divide it and replant a little deeper.

What to expect when it arrives

This one is supplied in 200mm pots in packs of six. They are established plants rather than young divisions, so a pack covers roughly 2m of edging at 40cm spacing, or fills two decent containers.

A few bruised outer leaves after transit are normal and can be pulled off on arrival. Give the plants a shaded spot for a week before planting, and expect them to knit together within one growing season. Delivered Australia wide, delivery from $29.95, and every plant carries our 30 day healthy plant guarantee.

Plant care guides and related reading

• How to choose the right edging plants
• Browse plants suited to partial shade
• Plants scaled for small gardens
• More perennials for cool climate gardens

Common questions

Sun or shade?

Morning sun with shade from midday onwards. Full afternoon sun bleaches and crisps the leaf edges, while deep shade dulls the red towards a muddy brown.

Will it survive a subtropical summer?

Not for long. Heucheras dislike prolonged heat and humidity and tend to rot at the crown, so in warmer northern gardens treat them as a seasonal container plant.

How many do I need for a border?

Two to three per metre at 40cm spacing. One pack of six covers about 2m of edge and fills in within a single growing season.