I bought it at a plant sale in the spring and I love it. I didn't realize when I bought it, however, that the blooms were insignificant. I thought they were similar to other heucheras. As a matter of fact, I never saw blooms on it at all, so maybe mine was too immature. Anyway, I do like the plant because I love the color.

I have it in part shade which is what they prefer, I understand.

Carmel is a h. villosa hybrid so it blooms in late summer and fall. Like most of the villosas carmels will grow in full sun but you will get a much better and larger foliage display in light shade.

UPDATE: I just received the White Flower Farm catalogue and it has this to say about 'Caramel' -

"Rarely flowers. All its energy goes into lots of superb foliage."

No wonder I never saw blooms on it. LOL It doesn't matter, I still like it.

WWF, better send out a fact checker or actually grow a plant before selling it to the uninformed public. LOL. That's how old wives tales get started. I just visited a large whole sale grower that grows Caramel and they were all in bud. DP and NC and the breeders website all have detailed descriptions and pictures of the plant in bloom.

Since you seem to be a little behind the curve, you may want to keep an open spot in your garden for two new villosa cultivars - Citonelle and Mocha.

I just saw a large pot of it for sale and noticed that the older leaves lost much of the caramel coloring and just the newer leaves were amber. Is that normal for this plant?

The older leaves most likly were grown when the plant was in lower light, thus the darker pigmentation.

Here is a link that might be useful: This is not Caramel: