Bleeding Heart: Pretty Cottage Garden Blooms

Bleeding Heart Care and Growing Tips

Courtesy Mary Buist

• Common names: Bleeding heart, Chinese pants, lady’s locket, lyre flower, lady in a boat
• Scientific Name: Previously Dicentra spectabilis, now Lamprocapnos spectabilis but will often find it sold as D. spectabilis
• Zones: 2 to 9
• Light Needs: part shade
• Soil: moist, well draining, high in organic matter
• Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and wide
• Pollinators: Attracts bees and hummingbirds

Bleeding heart is an old-fashioned cottage garden plant. In early spring, green foliage unfurls to mature, three-lobed leaves, very similar to parsley foliage. A string of about 10 pendulous pink and white blossoms along a horizontal thin stem arch above the foliage.

Each blossom looks like a heart-shaped locket: puffy with two pink outer petals and two white inner petals.

When and Where to Plant Bleeding Heart

Gardeners typically purchase bleeding heart as a container grown plant or as a bundle of bare roots, and do not start it from seed. Plant bleeding heart in the garden during spring. It prefers moist, well-draining soil that is high in organic matter. Choose a location with morning sun and afternoon shade or dappled shade.

“Plant bleeding hearts away from competing tree or shrub roots. Look for an area that is in part shade but not directly under the tree canopy,” says Jenny Rose Carey, a Pennsylvania gardener, speaker, and author of Glorious Shade and The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide. “They need rich soil amended with plenty of leaf mold or compost. Water them well in the first season to get them established.”

When Does Bleeding Heart Bloom?

Courtesy Bob Morter

Bleeding heart is one of the first flowering perennials to emerge in the spring. Its unique pink flowers blend well with tulips and Virginia bluebells. By summer, the plant becomes dormant which may leave a gap in the garden. Fill in this gap with shade loving perennials such as ferns, hostas, hardy geraniums, or astilbes or plant shade loving annuals such as impatiens.

“I grow bleeding hearts in and among other plants so there are no obvious gaps when they die down,” says Jenny. “In wet summers or if bleeding hearts are planted with plentiful moisture, the leaves stay in place at least through midsummer. It is only when the soil dries out later in the gardening year that the plants returns their energy to the storage root below ground in preparation for early growth next year.”

“There are several tricks for disguising the patch where they were growing in the spring. One is to plant in small patches and not a large drift. The small groupings of declining bleeding hearts are invisible once surrounding shade plants grow up around them. I also integrate them between plants that emerge later like hostas.”

Does Bleeding Heart Spread?

This non-native species may self-seed over the years, but it is not aggressive.

You can divide the plants in the spring or fall. Dig up the roots and cut a healthy root section with at least two growth nodes (place where stem emerges). Place root sections in moist potting mix or horticultural sand, about an inch deep. Keep moist and out of direct sun until stems emerge.

Pests and Diseases

Bleeding heart is deer and rabbit resistant. Common pests are slugs, snails, and aphids, all of which can be controlled.

If bleeding heart is planted in wet, poorly draining soil or if it is overwatered, the crown may rot.

When the foliage turns yellow in the summer, people often think the plant is dying but it is just entering the dormant phase.

Bleeding Heart Cultivars

Kristine Radkovska/Getty Images

Look for a gold foliage form called ‘Gold Heart’ and a white flowered form called ‘Alba’.

Commonly Grown Native Species

Courtesy Amanda Nelson

• Fringed bleeding heart (D. eximia): The finely divided grayish leaves stay above ground during the summer. The entire plant is smaller with pale lavender flowers, blooming at the end of the flowering stalk.
• Western or Pacific bleeding heart (D. formosa): The foliage stays above ground during the growing season and the flowers are heart-shaped and pink.
• Dutchman’s breeches (D. cucullaria): The white flowers with yellow tips are not heart-shaped but more expanded, similar to old-fashioned breeches. A spring ephemeral with finely dissected foliage.
• Squirrel corn (D. canadensis): A spring ephemeral very similar to D. cucullaria but flowers are heart-shaped and white with a pale red/purple hue and a red/purple mark.

Sources

• Wisconsin Horticulture Division of Extension – bleeding heart
• The National Gardening Association – The Top Recommended Varieties of Bleeding Hearts
• White Flower Farm – Lamprocapnos spectabilis
• Walters Gardens Inc. – Dicentra spectabilis
• Missouri Botanical Garden – Lamprocapnos spectabilis

About the Expert

Jenny Rose Carey is a British-American educator and garden writer. Her books include Glorious Shade and The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide. She has an experimental garden in southeast Pennsylvania where she grows as many plants as possible. Check out her monthly newsletter at jennyrosecarey.com, and Instagram @northviewgarden