(photo: Bleeding Hearts/My Shady Garden)
Bleeding Hearts – My Favorite Early Spring Shade Perennial
Bleeding Heart (Dicentra) is one of my favorite early spring shade perennials. It is a fast grower especially if temperatures warm up. In the right conditions, the plant literally grows inches per day.
With a break in the rain and temperatures warming – finally! – Chicagoans finally feel like spring is here. There is no doubt that the plants know it is spring – and they are growing like gangbusters. There seems to be a race for what can grow the biggest before the other plants catch up and mature.
I have some very mature Bleeding Heart plants – they were quite large and spilled over onto the lawn. I had meant to divide them in previous years, but it has to be done when the plants are still small (less than 6 inches). Once they get big and being to flower, it is too late and you need to wait until fall or the following spring.
(photo: Transplanted Bleeding Hearts/My Shady Garden)
Bleeding Heart is an acid loving perennial. I know that the soil by my stucco garden wall runs alkaline, probably from the concrete materials leftover in the soil. I amended the soil with some aluminum sulfate because I had it on hand, but an evergreen fertilizer or peat moss will also work. I probably added a quarter cup of the stuff for each hole. Not sure of the exact soil pH, but it is more acidic than what it started out as.
To separate your Bleeding Heart, place your shovel vertically near the edge of the plant, dig down, and lever up the plant.
When I did this (keep in mind the soil was moist), the plant split into 3 sections naturally. I kept the largest section where it was, and took the 2 smaller sections.
I repeated this on another plant as well. I planted the Bleeding Hearts in a group of 3 around my fountain. I also took care to plant a few leather leaf ferns nearby. Ferns and Bleeding Hearts blend beautifully – like a bouquet of flowers with the green filler.
