How to find and spread the love in your garden
When you’re kneeling on the ground weeding on a hot summer day — dirt under your nails, sweat on your face — the garden might not seem like a very romantic spot.
But gardens are actually full of love.
The birds and the bees are doing their thing; the flowers are lush and sensuous. A garden, in fact, was where Adam and Eve experienced the world’s first love affair.
Maybe that’s why gardens are full of the universal symbol for love: the heart shape. If you take the time to look, you’ll find that familiar icon in flowers and leaves in almost any landscape.
With Valentine’s Day on Thursday, let’s take a look at some favorite “heart-y” plants.
Flowers
No Valentine’s Day story about plants can skip the bleeding heart, an oldfashioned perennial whose little pink-and-white heart-shaped flowers dangle prettily from an arching stem.
This is not one of those examples where you have to squint and use your imagination to concede that well, maybe, there could be a heart shape in there somewhere. Young children and jaded non-romantics alike will agree: These flowers look like hearts.
• Why you’ll ♥ it: Bleeding heart is a low-maintenance gem that reliably returns year after year. As long as the soil doesn’t dry out, you can grow it almost anywhere from sun to shade. Perennials
Once you start looking, you’ll notice that all kinds of perennials feature heartshaped leaves.
Epimedium and brunnera, for instance — shade denizens with dainty spring flowers — both qualify.
But the ubiquitous hosta might be the best-known example.
Thriving in shade to partial sun, hostas offer bold leaves that provide an ideal foil for fellow shade dwellers such as ferns and Solomon’s seal.
• Why you’ll ♥ it: You can find a hosta for almost any niche. Some miniatures reach less than a foot across, while the biggest cultivars can grow wider than 6 feet.
And foliage colors range from green to gold to blue. Trees
Even trees want to get in on the lovefest.
Two natives with heartshaped leaves that thrive in central Ohio are redbud and American basswood, aka American linden.
Redbud is usually an understory tree that rarely tops 30 feet, while basswood can reach 60 feet or taller.
• Why you’ll ♥ them: Both boast fabulous spring flowers.
Redbud blooms first, smothering its branches with small but showy rosy-pink blossoms.
Basswood’s yellow flowers are less conspicuous, but, oh, the sweet fragrance! Both humans and bees find them irresistible. Houseplants
No outdoor garden? No problem.
Pothos and philodendron are low-maintenance houseplants whose heart-shaped leaves add a graceful accent to any room.
These tropical natives can adapt to a range of indoor settings — in a hanging basket, for instance, or on an east- or west-facing window sill.
• Why you’ll ♥ them: It’s easy to share some pothos or philodendron love by rooting cuttings in plain water, then giving them to friends and family.
Diana Lockwood, a freelance writer covering gardening topics, posts on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ mrsgardenperson.