PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Bleeding Heart
Lamprocapnos spectabilis
🌸 Flower
🔁 Perennial
Arching stems hung with rows of pink-and-white heart-shaped lockets in spring. Dies down by midsummer, so plant later perennials around it.
When to plant and care for it
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Flowers
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Bleeding Heart: what it needs
- Light
- Part shade · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water well until established, then in dry spells
- Soil
- Moist, humus-rich soil
- Spacing
- 60 cm
- Height
- 75 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- A little general feed in spring
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–8
Step by step
- On planting day
Plant
Plant at the same depth as it was in its pot, 60 cm apart, and firm in.
- 0–1 days after “Plant”
Water In Well
Give a full can of water, then keep moist for the first few weeks while roots establish.
- 7–14 days after “Water In Well”
Mulch Around the Base
Spread 5 cm of compost or bark around the plant, keeping it off the stems.
Every year
- MarchSpring Mulch
Spread a 5 cm mulch of compost around the plant, keeping it off the stems.
- MayIn Flower
Rows of little hearts — take a photo.
- JulyCut Back Yellow Leaves
Once the leaves yellow in summer, cut them down to the ground.
