Focus on Flowers

Show #11: Bleeding Heart

Gardeners are grateful for plants that will flower well without direct sun. The genus, "dicentra" has a number of plants with the common name "bleeding heart." These like rich soil and moisture. An English botanist, Robert Fortune brought the first bleeding heart specimen from the orient in 1846. The plant adapted well to the English climate and propagated easily. The old fashioned bleeding heart, Decentra "spectabilis" grows two feet tall with long arching racemes of heart shaped pink flowers. "Alba" is the white variety, but like so many white flowers is slightly less vigorous. They go dormant in mid summer, after their late spring display, so it is best to plant them with ferns and hostas, which can fill in the vacated space. There is one bleeding heart, dicentra "luxuriant" which does not die down, but which continues to bloom throughout the growing season. It has the added advantage of having ferny foliage. All bleeding hearts can be divided in the spring and give a traditional cottage garden look. Plant peddlers, like the famous Johnny Appleseed, who traveled around the country selling seeds and plants to pioneer homesteaders who yearned for varieties from back east, did a brisk business selling ornamentals such as bleeding hearts. Thus, although these varieties are not natives, they are plants American pioneers cherished.

WFIU
Created and maintained by Michael Toler
Last updated: Thursday, June 10, 2004
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Indiana University