Dicentra
Bleeding Heart
Treasured by all who behold them, Bleeding Hearts are ideal for the front of a border or a more relaxed setting like a cottage garden or wildflower planting. These easily cultivated perennials appreciate ample shade during hot summers and flourish in well-drained humus-rich soil that’s not too wet.
Famed German plant breeder Ernest Pagels masterminded this stylish union of the eastern U.S. native, Dicentra eximia and our western native, Dicentra formosa. Deeply dissected, powdery blue-green foliage sends forth a generous showing of foot-tall stems laden with chic, pendulous white flowers that’s well above the foliage. Irresistible to hummingbirds and bumblebees, ‘Aurora’s refined prowess touts vigor, bountiful blooms, deer resistance and superb winter hardiness, while casting luminous highlights in a lightly dappled and somewhat moist perennial border or woodland setting.
Blooms April–mid June
Size: 10" – 15" high x 12" wide.
Hardy to zone 5.
Selected from our Pacific coast species, ‘Bacchanal’ sprouts an elegant filigree-like mound of deeply cut gray-green foliage. The sumptuous, velvety wine-red flowers are draped like romantic heart-shaped lockets, bedecking lithe, arching stems. Reliable, energetic and long blooming, this refined compact cultivar delights bees, begs moist niches, and looks best when massed in shady borders or along woodland paths.
Blooms April–May
Size: 12" high x 12" wide.
Hardy to zone 4.
Dicentra ‘Margery Fish’ (P-0912)
Each $10.00
With charm to spare, alabaster heart-shaped “lockets”, each inscribed by a small pink mark gracefully dangle from pendulous, branched sprays atop a soft-looking ferny hummock. This choice evergreen perennial easily naturalizes given a cool moist location, the fernlike delicacy of its deeply divided, smoky blue leaves belying their vigor.
Unparalleled in the shade garden, ‘Margery Fish’ becomes summer dormant when the soil is too dry, can be planted as a lacy counterpoint to Tiarella ‘Mint Chocolate’ or cut for a sterling addition to a bouquet.
Blooms April–May & again in fall.
Size: 10" high x 12" wide.
Hardy to zone 5.
Dicentra spectabilis ‘Gold Heart’ (P-1647)
Each $10.00
Hailing from the Pope’s Hadspen Gardens in Somerset, England, this Dicentra’s artful golden mounds of dissected ferny leaves will light up the shady corners of your garden. Nodding heart-styled rose pink flowers line long, one-sided arching racemes above spectacular glowing foliage that is more yellow in bright shade and transforms to lime green in deeper shade.
‘Gold Heart’ can be massed with blue flowering Pulmonaria ‘Highdown’ and Anemone nemorosa ‘Vestal’ for sparkling color and contrasting foliar textures.
Blooms April – May.
Size: 18" – 2' 0" high x 2' 0" – 2-1/2' wide.
Hardy to zone 4.
