Friday, May 27, 2011

I Stand up for Bleeding Hearts

        Many blogs I follow have recently posted on flowers that are in spring splendor. I certainly appreciate these posts. Most of them demonstrate excellent photography  and very knowledgeable descriptions.

        While I was working in the yard today I noticed that my bleeding heart (lamprocapnos spectabilis)was at its very best. Bleeding hearts are early and since they are large-75-100cm - are very noticeable. Bleeding hearts are native to Northern China, Korea and Japan. They are very suitable to temperate climates such as I live in. There are other names for the bleeding heart as people see other shapes in the blooms. I have only seen pink bleeding hearts so I tried to see if there are other colors. I was not successful in finding bleeding hearts in other colors. Hopefully some of my readers will be able to add some information about color. By early August the leaves have lost color and the stems become dormant. Most years my bleeding hearts are cut down before the end of August.
  
       So I wanted to give the humble bleeding heart some publicity because it does have a charm of its own. It also suits me to some extent as I see myself as somewhat of a bleeding heart!