Blooming LOVELY
The perfect Valentine’s plant? One covered in hearts
IHOPE there’s no need to remind anyone that it’s Valentine’s Day, but if it slipped your mind, don’t panic. Those in the market for a last- minute gift, or who fancy treating someone to an extra pressie, can show their affection by snapping up an elegant perennial called bleeding heart that boasts gorgeous, heartshaped blooms.
Known botanically as Lamprocapnos spectabilis, it’s a plant that oozes romance from every stomata. Red flushed shoots emerge from the ground in early spring and form robust clumps of fern-like foliage. During April and May, 4ft- tall, arching stems are laden with pendulous, pink and white blooms.
Of course, getting hold of one today might be tricky. Not all garden centres will have them in stock and many people are shielding or avoiding the shops. Fortunately, they are widely available online. Once it arrives, set in the ground and your loved one will
Your loved one will cherish its appearance each spring for years
cherish its appearance in spring for years to come.
Lamprocapnos spectabilis is native to China, Korea and Japan, where i t thrives i n woodland. We’ve been growing it since 1846, thanks to plant-hunter Robert Fortune, who found a specimen near Shanghai – the intrepid Scot introduced loads more garden favourites, including Chusan palm and Mahonia japonica.
Like many wild plants, bleeding heart is associated with several legends.
In a Japanese tale, a prince tries to woo a princess by offering her a number of different gifts. Left devastated after she rejects them all, he stabs himself in the heart and the first lamprocapnos emerged from where his blood landed on the ground.
Back in the real world, bleeding heart has provided the genes for several cracking varieties. There are ones with pure white f l owers, pi nk blooms and two-tone, red and white hearts, along with plants with golden foliage.
Some have appeared naturally as seedlings in gardens, while others are the result of breeding.
Now, before anyone pulls me up on i it, I should h ld explain l i that h until il fairly recently, Lamprocapnos spectabilis was known by the far more palatable botanical name of Dicentra spectabilis.
C Confusingly, fil some suppliers sell the plant under its current name, while others ignore the update and persist with the old moniker. The name change came into effect in 2010, when botanists decided to split the large dicentra family into smaller groups.
As part of the overhaul, they decided to evict a number of climbers and tallish, multi- branching bleeding hearts. Only smaller, clump- forming perennial types were left in the dicentra fold.
Lam pro cap no swill thrive in partial shade but can cope with sunnier spots if the soil is consistently moist – plants tend to die back prematurely if the soil starts to dry out, so dig some leaf mould or garden compost into the ground prior to planting and cover the surface with a moisture-suppressing mulch in late winter.
Use them to add early interest in cottage-garden displays, shady borders and woodland-style gardens. They associate well with many other plants, and in my old north- facing London garden I planted some white-flowered ones alongside Bowles’ golden grass, epimedium and Acanthus mollis ‘Hollard’s Gold’.
One thing to bear in mind is that lamprocapnos start to die back once the floral show is over and there’s little evidence of their presence by midsummer. This can leave noticeable holes in displays. If this bothers you, team with summer-flowering perennials and they’ll fill the gaps.
Once planted, l amprocapnos require very little attention. Every four to five years, breathe new life into large, congested clumps by digging up carefully, dividing into smaller pieces and replanting in well-prepared soil.
Work is best carried out in early spring, just as shoots start to emerge from below the ground.