Lamprocapnos, Gold Leaf Bleeding Heart, Bleeding Heart 'Gold Heart'

Second try at growing this in a fair amount of shade in Atlanta. Didn't even emerge until the last week of May. Thought I'd lost anoth...Read Moreer. Hopeful that the foliage will last for a long time once it is big enough to see.

I live in Toronto, Ontario and this plant is as winter hardy as other varieties. Mine is stronger and stronger every year!

The golden/chartreuse foliage of this cutivar turns a great flowering garden plant into a wonderful plant for brightening shady areas. In...Read More shade, it looks as if the plant has been struck by a ray of sunshine. I would have expected the foliage to clash with the flowers, but I find they look great together.

As with the species, in the US southeast the foliage goes dormant in late spring, but further north it tends to last longer, even into September, if protected from hot afternoon sun. This cultivar does go dormant a bit sooner than the species, at least in full sun.

In any case, whenever the leaves begin to deteriorate, it's safe to force dormancy on it by cutting it to the ground. I'm experimenting with interplanting with herbaceous hibiscus hybrids and with Lespedeza thunbergii, which are very late to emerge from dormancy.

As with the species, the thick soft fleshy roots are brittle and easily damaged by careless handling/digging. Plants form multiple growing points after several years and can be carefully dug up and divided when dormant, either in very early spring or in late summer/fall.

This plant can get 4 feet wide in a few years. I would not plant these closer than 3 feet apart, even if I wanted a solid mass of bleeding heart.

Armitage states that this is hardy from Z2 to Z7.

Some of the other species rebloom, but not this one.

Dicentra ‘Gold Heart’ was developed in the garden and nursery of Hadspen House in Somerset, England, by Nori and Sandra Pope, a Canadian couple who successfully took on the task of restoring the gardens made famous by Penelope Hobhouse in the 1970's. It was a chance mutation that made its way into the nursery trade in Europe and eventually to North America in 1997 courtesy of Dan Hinkley. Nori and Sandra have since retired back to Canada, but we are grateful their discovery lives on to enrich our gardens.

Unlicenced propagation prohibited in Canada and the EU, but this appears not to be under US patent.

Outstanding performer in my north-facing flowerbed that is in shade all day. It emerges in early spring and flowers before most other pe...Read Morerennials. The foliage is as much of a eye-catcher as the flowers, and brightens up the shady bed. Mine stays relatively healthy all summer, sometimes with a bit of dieback. I planted another one in a spot that gets late afternoon sun, and it does not grow nearly as well as the one in deep shade.