Happy with Heucheras! (Heuchera Seedling Update)

With all the nasty but necessary weather we've been having lately it's been hard to get out in the garden to work. What's a gardener to do? Talk about the seedlings growing inside! Today I'm going to give you an update on my heucheras that I have grown from seed. The largest of the bunch is still tiny but I'm definitely happy with their progress. Some plants can be very challenging to start from seed, but I can tell you without a doubt that heucheras (or Coral Bells) can't be categorized in this way. They are easy to raise from seed. They may not grow to be exactly like the parent plant but that's what makes gardening interesting, the variation.

In this first picture I have six seedlings in a reused yogurt cup. (Ok you can barely see number six but he is growing!) As I've mentioned before I like to reuse materials for planting purposes and this yogurt cup has done an adequate job for these heucheras. In the second picture I have three more heuchera seedlings.

How easy is it really?  Let's look at the steps to grow heucheras from seed.
1. Fill the container with soil. A good seed starting mix is probably ideal but I just used regular potting soil.
2. Sprinkled the tiny (very tiny) seeds into the soil.
3. Wet and wait. I kept the soil moist but not soggy and the seedlings grew happily.

Once the seedlings grow a couple good leaves they can be transplanted carefully into their own pots. The first leaves that come up, called cotyledons, don't look like heuchera leaves.  They are rounded and could look like many other seedling leaves.  I'll be transplanting these seedlings later this week. 

I have no clue what they will turn out to look like. I collected the seed from our corner shade garden heucheras where we have several varieties and I didn't separate the seeds by their variety. I suspect that many of these will be 'Palace Purple' which breeds true but maybe not. I would love to see a unique foliar variation appear as a result of this mixture. If not that's OK too, I just acquired 9 more heuchera plants for free!  I like that price.