Bronze Wave Coral Bells

Bronze Wave carries some of the largest leaves of any coral bells, glossy and ruffled, shifting from deep bronze to purple-green as the season goes. This selection of the native Heuchera villosa grows 18 to 24 inches tall and wide in part shade to full shade, hardy from Zone 3 through Zone 8.

Creamy yellow flower sprays rise above the foliage in late summer, later than most heucheras, and bees and hummingbirds come to them.

The size is what makes this one useful. At close to two feet it holds a shade bed the way a small shrub would, and the leaf texture reads from a distance rather than needing to be viewed up close.

Heuchera villosa is the southeastern species, and heat and humidity tolerance is the trait it brings, so this holds up through summers that flatten the fancy-leaved hybrids. It wants soil that drains, since winter wet is what kills heucheras. Deer leave it alone.