Coral Bells Heuchera Black Forest Cake

Black Forest Cake carries deeply ruffled, near black foliage in a low evergreen mound, and unlike most coral bells it is worth growing for the flowers as well: slender stems of cherry red bells that stand clear of the leaves and hold for weeks. Almost every other dark leaved heuchera has flowers you cut off. This one you leave on. It works as a shadow in a shaded border, a courtyard pot or a repeated ribbon along a path, where the dark leaf sets off everything planted around it.

Plant it where something pale sits behind it

Coral bells want part shade, moderate water and soil that drains sharply, and they do best in Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and the cooler tablelands, with more effort required in humid coastal Queensland. Improve the bed with compost and coarse grit, keep the crown sitting proud of the soil, and give the plants room for air to move between them, around 300mm apart in a drift. Growth is slow to moderate, so plant in numbers rather than waiting for one plant to fill a space. The failure mode with this cultivar is not horticultural, it is placement. A near black plant put against dark bark mulch, a charcoal fence or a bed of dark leaved shrubs simply disappears, and gardeners conclude it is not performing when it is really just invisible. Give it something pale to work against: lime green foliage, a silver leaved companion, pale gravel, a light rendered wall. Repeat it in threes or fives rather than dotting single plants about, so the dark reads as a deliberate mass. Slugs and snails lace the new leaves in spring and show up badly on dark foliage.

Black, plum or brick red

Against Sugar Plum the difference is surface. Sugar Plum is plum purple under a silvered overlay with darker veining, so it catches light and reads as a pattern; Black Forest Cake is matte and solid and reads as a shape. Use Sugar Plum where you want detail close to the eye, and this one where you want weight and contrast at a distance. Fire Alarm is the opposite choice again, a bright brick red that advertises itself rather than receding into the background. If you want the darkest leaf in the range and flowers actually worth keeping, this is the one. Compare across the whole coral bells range.

Deadheading, dividing and crown depth

Leave the flower stems until the bells brown off, then cut them out at the base; on this cultivar the display is worth the wait. Keep mulch pulled back from the crown, because a buried crown rots in a humid summer and that is what kills most heucheras in Australian gardens. Feed in early spring and again in autumn with a light dressing of slow release complete fertiliser or worm castings, kept off the leaves. Every second or third year, lift the plant in late winter, cut away the old woody stem base, and replant the youngest rosettes deeper. That single job keeps the mound tight and dark.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 140mm, at $16.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.