Pages

Friday, May 05, 2006

Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis)


This beautiful plant (whose religious name is Mary's heart) was flowering when we first looked at our house. A year later, I read about the bleeding heart in Karen Andreola's A Charlotte Mason Companion.

My children delight in the little heart-shaped flowers. In the spring and early summer, Brendan plucks a little heart everytime he goes out the front door. He has been doing this for the past four years and I wonder whether he will ever tire of picking these flowers.

The bleeding heart requires virtually no care. I simply remove the dead leaves and branches in the fall or winter and the plant grows back beautifully the following spring.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Christine, I love Bleeding Hearts. My grandfather had a beautiful bed of them when I was growing up and dh planted one for me here this spring! Thanks for the tip on Karen Andreola's book ~ I'm off to dig it up now. :)

Alice Gunther said...

These are just lovely--and so perfect for "Our Lady's Garden."