The dark purple is doing fine for me here in NH zone 5ish but a yellow leaf (can't remember the name) is dying out and never did well. They are on the west side of a perennial bed in front of a small hummingbird clethra. I still wanted some color so there was enough room to put a blue/green glazed pot filled with pink petunias, a small Proven Winners variety. Love the combination.

Palace Purple does well for me and I get a lot of seedlings..but Key Lime Pie and Creme Brulee died..I like the ones I have but won't buy more..would rather have ferns, brunneras and hostas..

Palace Purple is one I can grow from seed from Swallowtail Seeds. Given the number I might need that would save me a lot. That's good news !

I have found them to be extremely fiddly, but recent success with tiarella (whim purchase), made me try heuchera again in the same position. Since I only planted it a few weeks ago, it's far too early to know, but it looks to be thriving, with abundant new growth for a small plant.

Irony intended: it depends.

If not divided regularly, they start shrinking. Among the purples you are interested in, "Brownies" has proven to be robust and long lasting. Very easy to pull apart and replant. It is really dark brown, with less purple than Palace Purple. It is has Villosa parentage and doesn't mind the heat. It doesn't mind the cold. I haven't had a problem with it heaving. (I think it's root system is heartier than most other heucheras. It does get big- a clump can get a foot across. It showed up at one nursery for one season and I've not seen it since though I recall I was surprised to see in an on line catalogue.

I also have a much smaller black and silver which has done well over several seasons. Can't remember the name.

Not purple but perhaps of interest to others: Green Spice, Caramel and a Lime something: Caramel and Lime are villosas. I don't remember if Green Spice is.

And I agree about Palace Purple. It has an iron constitution

Correction: Unfortunately, Brownies is not purple on top. It is a dark green, rather like ligularia Britt Marie. However, the undersides are purple. they show well because of the leaf size and that wind lifts the big leaves and you get a two tone effect.

I checked the web; lots of good information and photos about "Brownies" there

I have Heuchera 'Lime Rickey', 'Citronelle' (both chartreuse), and an unnamed green with silver markings and tall red flowers that the hummers like that I got at a plant exchange many years ago, all of which have survived more than 5 years. Both Lime Rickey and Citronelle are fussy about their light exposure and are unhappy with either too much or too little, but are really nice when they are happy. The green one is lovely but relatively unobtrusive when not blooming with just a light frost in patterns on the leaves. Heuchera 'Frosted Violet' has survived 3 full seasons but I find a bit boring and the flowers are an unobtrusive ivory. Tiarella 'Sugar and Spice' has survived more than 10 years, but is more of a woodland wildflower type than a foliage type, with only a red splotch in the leaf center, but profuse blooms.

I (or the voles - sometimes it's difficult to tell) have killed Heuchera "Snow Angel', and 'Silver Veil' as well as Heucherella 'Yellowstone Falls', 'Rosalie', and 'Sunrise Falls' at the very least. There are most likely others that I don't have in my records as well.

In my garden, the deep purple leafed Heucheras fade into the background, unlike other purple-leafed plants that are taller or of a different shade. I find that the purple leafed Heuchera are too close in color to the soil or mulch to really stand out, though a large mass of them might be more impressive.

You might also ask on the perennials forum along with asking about growing conditions - light, soil type and pH, and temperatures so you can judge similarities to your growing conditions. I have fine sandy loam soil that is quite acid.

This guy performs best with a little shade. Full sun all day seems to require additional attention such as ample watering. It self seeds in the garden too. I'm z6b.

This is great information from everybody. Thank you so much.

dbarron, if tiarella is giving you luck, have you tried any heucherellas? They're a cross between heuchera and tiarella. I believe they are supposed to have more of a shade preference, but when there are a zillion (am I exaggerating?) cultivars the standard rules seem to not matter anymore.

Caramel seems to be faithful to the gardener. Online is is too...caramel. Katsura, your Caramel is beautiful. I love the lime/chartreuse with a hint of caramel. I often feel that the images we see online are not true to what we might get in the garden. Even when plants are cultivated by cuttings, if a whole lineage came from a sport that was slightly different, then they're different. Also, if sun/shade makes a difference then that just adds to the variation. I would like a Caramel like yours.

NHBabs, I agree about the dark purples fading into the bed. I have been slow to warm up to heucheras and the dark purples didn't help. They just look black, which I don't like. But, two of the plants I am rescuing from the current pollinator bed (that was a neglected shade bed when we moved in) are black cohosh, Actea simplex, unknown cultivar. A black plant in shade...quite a challenge for me. I've now bought some Aralia 'Sun King', a plant I am very excited about. They'll be a backdrop to help the Actea stand out. At the base of the Actea I'm putting Ladies' Mantle, and I thought some of the purple heucheras might stand out better with them as the background. The whole concept is coming dangerously close to a black-and-chartreuse-striped-zebra look, but I'm going to work with it and see what happens. If it weren't for the Actea, I wouldn't be looking for darker heucheras, but now I've expanded my little brain.

If the darker purple will create a zebra effect, the Marvelous Marble can be grown from seed and is a good blend. Marie, the Green Spice looks like it would be a good blend, too.

Overall, it's good news to hear that the heucheras are doing well for many New England gardeners. Maybe it's the harsh midwesterners that are having bad luck.

I have seen several stunning cultivars in the l last week at a couple of nurseries, but I am sticking to my guns about impulse purchases and not feeding the plant addiction. Just say no!

Yes, I've killed heucherellas too (Sweet Tea) in different locations. If this microenvironment works, I may add more next year (1 or 2 more).

Deannatoby, look at Japanese forest grass, which has a different leaf form and texture than the other plants you've looked at. I like the gold one best, or variegated would work against the green and dark leaves. It is well-behaved, making a slowly enlarging clump, unlike several other grasses and Carex that I have tried and which spread vigorously.

Use clumps or diagonal drifts rather than stripes if possible. I haven't found that the purple Acteas blend into the background the way purple Heucheras do since they are taller and have a different texture.

Be aware that Aralia 'Sun King' gets quite large in New England despite looking like a sweet little plant in a nursery pot. Here's a link to a post on the perennials forum with several posts from Thyme2dig who is just south of me in NH. She has photos from June with it 5' tall, and in mid-July with it as tall as her 6' husband. She trims back leaves at the base to expose her under-plantings and to keep it off the path. It grows from nothing to the size of a medium-large shrub in 3 months each year, so you want to place it so that it doesn't block sight lines from the driveway.

Thank you, NHBabs! I had not thought of the forest grass. I'm putting it in another location, but you're right--it would be ideal here because of the texture. Excellent call! One reason I go to Ladies' Mantle so much is because I have an enormous supply to divide and transplant.

I'm trying to plan the bed according to what you see driving in, which is a parallel line of sight to the bed and not looking perpendicular, which is the normal way to view a bed. It's a challenge, for sure. I've been planning some drifts, but even with that the colors in my mind are still close to zebra. They may be zebra stripes that are really fat in parts, but I'm still fleshing it out. It's one reason I'm now considering heucheras that aren't so close in color to the black cohosh. Maybe they tie into the cohosh, but aren't the deep color. I'm glad the cohosh doesn't fade into the background. Right now they are badly placed, and don't do much of anything.

I've posted in the thread in the perennials forum. I didn't see the link, but I think I found the right thread. I need the Aralia to be big, and 6' would be welcome. But, I had thought in my shade and with my short growing season it wouldn't pass 4'. Thanks for the heads-up because there will be one placed closer to the driveway, and there's a big difference between 4 and 7 feet! It will also get more sun in that spot. I was hoping to plant them tomorrow.

I've been thinking about the Aralias. It seems universal that people see them in their pot, all nice and little, and then are surprised when they get so big. It makes me wonder if Aralia's size is very dependent on how much it's roots can spread, including for example how "soft" the soil is, whatever is the opposite of compacted. It's really surprising how very small these guys are in their pots, and how big they get in the garden. It could be their age, but I'm betting that if I had bought these pots in May, the plant would be huge now. My plants in 1 gallon or 1/2 gallon pots purchased last Thursday are about 1' tall now, towards the end of summer.