Foamybells ‘Sweet Tea’

* Common name: Foamybells ‘Sweet Tea’

* Botanical name: Heucherella ‘Sweet Tea’

* What it is: A leafy perennial grown mainly for its unusual color, which changes through the seasons from amber and apricot in spring to a darker cinnamon and salmon-peach blend in fall. Gets dainty white flower spikes in late spring.

* Size: 18-20 inches tall, 2 feet wide.

* Where to use: Best in shade or part shade. Great for season-long color in a north or east foundation bed or in any shady or partly-shaded mixed garden, including under trees.

* Care: Keep damp the first season, then water usually needed only in droughts. Scatter balanced organic granular fertilizer over the bed in early spring. Snip off flower stems after bloom. Cut browned-out leaves at end of winter but don’t cut into the crowns (the fleshy part just above the ground where the leaves emerge). Often holds its color through much of winter (semi-evergreen). Plants can be dug and divided in early spring or early fall.

* Great partner: At the base of hollies, boxwoods or nandinas (evergreens). Liriope or Japanese forestgrass are good perennial partners.

— George Weigel