That would be Dan Heims, President of Terra Nova Nurseries.
What a fun night! An evening talking about Heuchera, Heucherellas, Tiarella and, New Plants.
The night was hosted at My Garden Nursery, in Millcreek, WA. It was a celebration after Jenney wrote about Heucheras for 365 days. She is one of the owners of the nursery and a heucheraholic. They carry more heucheras then I have ever seen at one nusery. Not sure on the stats, but a least 35 different ones and they change over the seasons. So you never know what you will find.
Here she is with Dan after she was given her flower tiara!
There were Heuchera everywere!
Brownies
Sadly, Dan did not bring any of the 2012 intros!
He said they are still small and you should start seeing them this summer. So I'm going to start saving, Bella Notte is a show stopper! He had pictures of all the new ones.
He spoke about his breeding program and the many years it has taken to produce the beauties that we buy today. When he looks at different heucheras he can see the many different parents that produce the plant. His hybrid program is taking two directions. First is mini heacheras, they should be coming on the market in a year or so. The other is to create a more cold hardy heuchera. The breeders are in the process of crossing a native from Saskatchewan. They should be out in a few years.
Sadly, others are using his plants and creating imposters. Beware! Orangeman is one of those!
What a fun evening! Dan is a expert on these plants and a fun speaker. Very graceious with his time and took the time to talk with all us heucheraholics.
Thanks Dan and Jenny! A great evening.
Just a note I don't work for either company just reporting on a fun evening out.
Of couse there was shopping! Next I'll show you what followed me home.