This Guest Post was written by Randy Schultz of Home, Garden, and Homestead Magazine.
The rare white bleeding heart!
Dicentra ‘Love Hearts’ is an elegant white version of the popular red Bleeding Hearts. Its white, heart-shaped blossoms are blushed with pink, and they rise in profuse displays over handsome blue-green foliage. ‘Love Hearts’ makes a splendid edging for shady perennial beds, and it is also neat and compact enough to work beautifully in containers.
The heart-shaped blooms arise on leafless stems that arch up and out from the plant beginning in late spring, and the flowers keep coming all the way until the first frost. The flowers dangle prominently above the foliage, begging to be cut for the vase and enjoyed up close.
The handsome foliage keeps ‘Love Hearts’ attractive both before and after its season of bloom. This is a rather small plant, growing to just 10 to 12 inches high and wide, and it features finely textured fern-like leaves all season long. And because it is unappetizing to nibbling creatures such as deer (it is toxic), the foliage remains fresh and full until frost and sometimes beyond. ‘Love Hearts’ thrives in average-to-moist soil, withstanding a little dampness as long as it is dry in winter. Its habit is spreading, filling in large plantings nicely throughout USDA Zones 3-9. You will be delighted by its long season of color and vigorous growth. Bareroot plants sell for $19.95, or three plants sell for $15.95 each from Wayside Gardens, 800-845-1124.