Tips for Growing Bleeding Hearts

I live in the northeast and I’m always looking for flowers and plants that will grow well in planting zone 4. Our winters can get bone-chilling cold and our summers can be blistering hot.

We have a few shady areas on our property and I discovered that Bleeding Hearts and Hostas grow well in these particular areas. They can be planted in partial-sun and/or shady areas, but you should avoid full-sun locations.

We decided to plant our Bleeding Hearts along the front side of our home that is shaded 1/2 of the day. The previous home owners already had a flower bed that runs right up alongside of the house and it definitely needed some attention.

To get going…we completely dug up that flower bed, removed debris and old plants. My husband then added 4 bags of new soil and some fertilizer into the mix. He watered the area lightly and we left it alone overnight.

The next afternoon he planted 6 Bleeding Hearts into the flower bed along with some new Hostas that are perfect for shady areas. Once you have your plants in, water them really well. You’ll want to water the plants on a consistent basis since Bleeding Hearts love moist soil. With that said, don’t over-water them and make sure your soil drains well.

You’ll find that your Bleeding Hearts will bloom every year during the early to mid-Spring time period here in the northeast. For Pennsylvania (my specific area), I typically see them in full bloom during late April and early May. If we’ve had a mild winter, I will see them blooming a littler earlier than that.

Every 3-4 years we like to dig up the plants and separate it’s roots, so that we can propagate new plants. We typically can get 2-3 new plants from every mature plant that we separate. We do re-plant one of those back into the original hole & location. We then take all of our new plant starters and move those into a new location around our property.

The Bleeding Heart is really easy to plant, grow and take care of. It’s great for newbie gardeners and for those partial-shady areas on your property. They are a medium-sized flowering plant that can add little hints of color to your garden.