As a garden writer, I often get asked the most difficult of questions: What is your favorite plant? It's a query akin to asking which of my children I love the most, and I often defer to the answer offered by the late plantsman Allen Haskell, who always said something along the lines of " . . . whichever plant is in bloom that day."
When pressed, I often cite lemon-scented thyme as my favorite plant. I just love planting it around my walkways, driveway and other full-sun areas. It's impossible to tire of the lemon fragrance that clings to your shoes or the leg of your pants. Tolerant of hot, dry locations and moderate shade, Thymus citriodorus is a great lawn substitute unless your soil is too moist for prolonged periods.
Enough about thyme, though. A new plant is creeping up my top 10 list since it arrived in a package of plant samples from the folks at Proven Winners, who are known for their annual plants that spill out of containers. A most unassuming plant when it arrived, a heuchera known as 'Dolce Mocha Mint' has been a spectacular performer for consecutive summers in my Zone 4b garden.
Coral bells, as heucheras are commonly known, have long been underappreciated inhabitants of the shade garden. When a cultivar known as 'Palace Purple' hit the market a few years ago and earned some attention from the Perennial Plant Association, coral bells started showing up in more garden centers. Breeding has recently intensified into varieties like 'Mocha Mint.'
The plant's medium-sized leaves have hints of purple, green and silver and provide an almost year-round backdrop. I planted my samples under a birch tree with a fairly low canopy, figuring the foliage would be a nice complement to the green leaves and white bark of the tree.
Last year, the plants bloomed like crazy, but I figured maybe that was a first-year aberration. This year, though, the red flowers emerged in early June and when I looked outside on Aug. 7, the color had faded but was still discernable. For a heuchera to bloom for two months with flowers of any note is amazing -- a major step forward in comparison to previous cultivars of coral bells.
The official zone rating of the plant is Zone 5a, but 'Mocha Mint' made it through last winter in New Gloucester, Maine, when several other alleged Zone 5 plants such as gaura, hibiscus and even lychnis did not.
Northeast winters can be fickle and the plant could still prove to be too tender in time. At two months of bloom, though, this plant holds up well, even as an annual. If you need a perennial to brighten up a shady area, I'd encourage you to give 'Mocha Mint' a try.
-Paul Tukey: August 11, 2006.
