Dolce Cherry Truffles Coral Bells - Five from Plant Sale - September 2020

 The sixth variety of plants that we bought at the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale is a set of five Coral Bells.  Specifically, DOLCE Cherry Truffles Coral Bells.  These aren't the FIRST Coral Bells that we have in our landscape as I planted one (not sure of the cultivar) in a container in 2019 and transplanted into a foundation bed in the Fall.   By August of 2020 (a little bit over a year ago), I checked in on the plant and it seemed to be doing well.   In that post, I mentioned that the best practice is to divide these things every three to five years.  2019 = year one, 2020 = year two.  Next year is year three.  Come Spring, I'll take a shot at dividing it.  

Here - below - is the sign for this variety - DOLCE Cherry Truffles Coral Bells from the plant sale.

The description reads:

Beautiful bright red, heavily ruffled leaves form a low, mounding habit.  In Summer, the bright color persists, maturing to a rich mahogany red.  Dark burgundy stems hold light pink flowers and dark rose calyxes.

I posted about the All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses that I bought a few days ago and one of the inspiration photo that I found for those grasses included some of these coral bells as companion plants and that's why I bought five of these.  

Despite not knowing the variety of the Coral Bell that I have on the side of the house, these are of a proper pedigree.   Walter's Garden praises these as improving on an already-favorite Cinnamon Curls Coral Bells:

For those that loved the bold texture of CINNAMON CURLS™ comes an improvement that keeps the popular shape and color, but adds increased vigor and size. New leaves are bright red, heavily ruffled, and form a low, mounding habit. In summer, the bright color persists, maturing to a rich mahogany red. Dark burgundy stems hold light pink flowers and dark rose calyxes from early to midsummer. A wonderful color for all seasons.

These are from Proven Winners:

The back of the tag lists some companion plants as Ligularia, hostas, ferns, Sedge and more.  My plan is to mix them with some grasses in our front yard - to the side of our driveway.  

Once I get them in the ground (have to create a new bed first), I'll post about them on the blog. 

2020 Morton Arboretum Fall Plant Sale Posts:

• A pair of Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grasses destined for outside our screened porch
• A unique, ruffled hosta named Waterslide
• An upright and narrow hosta - Praying Hands Hosta
• A Japanese grass that I've lusted after finally was added to our yard - the All Gold Grass.
• A lacy backdrop plant - the Chocoholic Black Snakeroot - that was new to me. 
• Companion plants to the All Gold forest grasses - these dark red Coral Bells (DOLCE Cherry Truffles) are very heavy on the ruffles.