“We didn't invent Heuchera, but we certainly are reinventing Heuchera"

Terra Nova Nurseries used Cultivate’26 to introduce the new Heuchera Fyre Wing series. Featuring deeply cut, dragon-inspired foliage in seven gemstone-themed colors, the collection is the result of five years of intensive breeding and is already being rolled out to tissue culture laboratories worldwide. According to Chuck Pavlich, director of new product development, the project started with an unexpected discovery rather than a planned breeding objective. “About five years ago, I found a mutation in one of our varieties that had a slightly palmate leaf, but the foliage was not terribly pretty,” he explains. “But I had a vision of what it could be.”

© Arlette Sijmonsma | FloralDaily.com

From unexpected mutation to breeding breakthrough
Turning that vision into a commercial variety proved far from straightforward. The original mutation was sterile, producing neither viable pollen nor a functioning ovary. Terra Nova’s laboratory team restored fertility by creating a tetraploid version of the plant, increasing its chromosome count before beginning the breeding process. “Out of that we made hundreds of crosses, we sowed thousands of seeds, and probably had close to a half acre of seedlings to choose from,” Chuck says. “The problem was that this line only produced about two to five percent that looked like their parents. So we had to keep making selections and breeding. It was a five-year process to get where we are.”

The result is a collection of seven varieties, each representing a different color and carrying the Fyre Wing trademark followed by a gemstone name. The naming fits the mythical inspiration behind the series, drawing from both Asian and European dragon lore. The dramatic, wing-like foliage also reflects that theme, giving the plants a distinctly different appearance from traditional Heucheras.

A new look for Heuchera
Unlike the familiar rounded leaves associated with the genus, the Fyre Wing series features finely divided, deeply serrated foliage that Chuck compares to a laceleaf Japanese maple. “The leaves look much more like a Japanese maple than they do a Heuchera. They’re very finely serrated.”

Beyond aesthetics, the new genetics also delivered unexpected production and garden performance. The foliage is densely covered with fine hairs, creating attractive frost effects and allowing water droplets to remain visible on the leaves. The plants have also demonstrated excellent tolerance to both cold conditions and hot, humid climates. “They’re very cold tolerant and very heat and humidity tolerant. That was a big surprise,” Chuck notes. “They’re also naturally dense and are very reproductive in the lab, so they produce a lot of babies very easily.”

Fast rollout through tissue culture
That propagation efficiency has allowed Terra Nova to move quickly toward commercial production. Tissue culture stock has already been distributed to laboratories in the United States, China and Indonesia, while production in the Netherlands is expected to start soon through licensed propagators. Additional licensees are also preparing production across Europe, including Poland. “Fortunately, because it reproduces very well in the lab, we were able to ship stock to a number of labs around the world,” Chuck says. “Right now, we have enough tissue culture stock to supply hundreds of thousands.”

For growers, that means availability should ramp up rapidly without the long waiting periods often associated with newly introduced genetics.

© Terra Nova Nurseries, Inc.Fyre Wing Spinel

A market ready for innovation
Chuck emphasizes that continuous innovation is what keeps the Heuchera category relevant. “The Heuchera market is still really hot and they always want some novelty,” he says. “We had great genetics in the past, we’ll have great genetics in the future.”

Looking back on the lengthy development process, Chuck believes the introduction represents more than just another new series. “I think it’s the most novel breakthrough in Heucheras, maybe ever, maybe since colored foliage emerged,” he concludes. “Terra Nova didn’t invent Heucheras, but we certainly are reinventing Heucheras.”

For more information:
Terra Nova Nurseries
[email protected]
www.terranovanurseries.com