When Thierry Delebroye introduced Heuchera 'Caramel' in 2006, we suspected that it would be the start of many good things to come. And Thierry didn't let us down as he continued to work with his villosa hybrids to introduce more and more delights.

The perhaps unlikely mother of them all was an unwanted plant of H. villosa 'Autumn Bride' which Thierry's wife Sandrine decided to rescue in 2001 by planting it in her parents' garden instead of throwing it away.  

When she returned to the garden in the summer of 2002, Sandrine noticed that the plant appeared to have a more yellow-green appearance than other villosa Heucheras.  

She returned this apparent mutation to Thierry, who proceded to collect the seeds it produced that year to see what would come of them.  

Clockwise from left: H. 'Caramel', H. 'Citronelle', H. 'Mocha', H. 'Brownies'

Of all the seedlings produced, 2 plants really stood out, and these became H. 'Caramel' and H. 'Brownies'.  

In 2005 Sandrine discovered a citrus coloured mutation of H. 'Caramel' among plants she was preparing for a show, and this became the 2007 introduction H. 'Citronelle.  

In the meantime Thierry had been crossing H. 'Brownies' with other darker varieties, which in 2005 also resulted in another 2007 introduction H. 'Mocha'.

During the same summer as H. 'Mocha' was discovered Thierry was making crossings of H. 'Caramel' with an old French favourite of his, H. 'Glorie d'Orleans' (sometimes known as 'Lemoine'), which he prizes for its rich flowering habit and silver-green foliage.

A total of 8 very different varieties were selected from resulting seedlings for introduction, of which H. 'Pistache' has characteristics closest to the archetypal H. villiosa plant with its huge foliage, fast growth rate and all-round strength.

Heuchera 'Pistache' shown off to best effect surrounded by some of Thierry's other H. villosa hybrids

Other seedlings resulting from those crossings include 'Beaujolais', 'Christa', 'Encore', 'Miracle', 'Pinot Gris', 'Pinot Noir' and 'Tiramisu'.

With their common ancestry in H. villosa 'Autumn Bride', this collection of fabulously coloured varieties have all inherited qualities of size, strength and the ability to withstand a lot more sun exposure than similarly coloured varieties.