Foamybells ‘Tapestry’

* Common name: Foamybells ‘Tapestry’

* Botanical name: Heucherella ‘Tapestry’

* What it is: A low perennial with a compact, slowly spreading habit. The cold-hardy, lobed leaves are green with a silvery sheen and burgundy-purple veins. Plants send up wiry stems that produce small, light-pink, bottle-brush flowers in late spring.

* Size: 12 inches tall, 2 feet wide.

* Where to use: Best in shade or part shade. Leaves hold color through most of winter, so these make excellent foundation plants lining northern and eastern exposures. Also a good choice in any shade garden or under trees, where ‘Tapestry’ is fairly tolerant of dry shade and root competition.

* Care: Keep consistently damp the first season, then water usually needed only during  hot, dry spells. 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). Plants can be dug and divided in early spring or early fall.

* Great partner: Edge or ring around hydrangeas, boxwoods or fothergilla. Liriope or green Japanese forestgrass are good perennial partners.