Growing Bleeding Hearts with Wildflowers

 This year I am growing bleeding hearts in my wildflower garden because I think the spring-blooming heart-shaped flower is pretty and that it will attract hummingbirds.

I am very excited to be adding the bleeding heart to my wildflower garden this year. The garden bed gets early morning sun with part-shade in the heat of the day plus the soil is well drained as the garden sits up on a slight hill.

When the bleeding hearts stop blooming in late spring the other flowers will start to bloom.  Lasting beauty throughout the growing season.  I will be growing the bleeding hearts as a border plant in the front of the garden.

My neighbor grows bleeding hearts in a partial shade spot by her pond and also grows in a container next to the border of her patio.  The bleeding Hearts grow well in USDA zones 3-9.  It is best to grow bleeding hearts where they get morning sun and afternoon part-shade.   They also grow best in well-drained soil.  If the soil is too wet then the roots will rot.

border planting / bleeding hearts

My garden bed soil is rich as we amend the soil yearly with Miracle-Gro Expand and Gro mix.  This potting mix can be used in in-ground garden beds or in containers and can expand up to three times its size when water is added.  What I like is this soil is formulated to feed plants for up to six months and can hold up to 50% more water than basic potting soil.  Which means you water your gardens less. 

You can plant bleeding hearts from seed or from a nursery-grown container.  Either way plant after the threat of frost has passed.

Seeds should be planted a half inch deep, then water well and keep the soil moist but not wet until germination  Then I would recommend watering the seedlings so that the soil does not dry out and pull away from the stem.   Normally I mist my seedlings in the morning and the afternoon.

When fully grown the bleeding hearts will be up to 30 inches tall with a similar spread.  They will bloom in late spring then the foliage will turn yellow and the plant will die back.   In early summer you would prune them.

My neighbor never cuts her bleeding heart plant back she lets it die back naturally and allows the spent flowers with the seeds to fall and naturalize so that she has more blooms the following year.

I do cut back my wildflower garden in late summer, and I will apply a layer of mulch.  I will continue to water the garden where bleeding hearts are planted until there is a hard frost.

Looking Forward to Spring Gardening

Daffodils

It is January and I know winter is not over but this week we have spring-like weather and I have enjoyed my time spent in the garden because the spring bulbs are blooming and there are buds on my old-fashioned lilac bushes.  

Soon there will be hundreds of daffodils followed by pink tulip flowers blooming on the slope and I am looking forward to the spring flowers and gardening.

Crocus

We will have warm weather for the next couple of days and I will be getting a jump start on my spring chores.

Instead of waiting for March, I am going to cut back my large ornamental grass garden and remove any of the leaves that have covered this garden bed. 

Ajuga burgundy glow

When this garden is cleaned up then the ajuga burgundy glow that grows close to the border stones will be able to get the nutrients from the sunlight and will produce pretty blue flowers in the spring.  

I also want to work on my herb garden because my husband would like me to extend it so it grows along the side of the garden path. I agree with him that fragrant herbs close to the path would be wonderful in summer.

The warm weather break is enjoyable, I feel renewed and looking forward to spring flower blooms and planning my summer annual flower gardens.

Gardening on Warm Winter Day

Today the temperature was in the mid '50s and so I took advantage of the warm weather and went to work in my garden. The snowdrops were blooming and this white flower is generally the first flower to bloom in spring.

Snowdrops and purple crocus are the first flowers in early spring

I took some time to remove the mulch from my spring garden beds and saw that the crocus and daffodils were coming up also. Now I know that these warm days is just a break because cold weather is in the forecast for this weekend, but instead of covering the new growth up with a light layer of leaves, I think I will make up my spring fertilizer.

This flower garden fertilizer is one that was passed down from my dad, he would mix 8 lbs of compost with 3 lbs of bone meal and if there was any ash left in the firepit he would add that to the wheelbarrow and mix all the ingredients with a shovel.  Learn more about this spring flower garden fertilizer here

I will put a layer of fertilizer over the flower beds and around the spring flowering shrubs. Like my lilac and forsythia and by doing this I know that when it comes time for the flowers to bloom that they will be beautiful.

I spent three hours in the garden today and really enjoyed getting my flower beds ready for the next growing season.