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Oh those Bleeding Hearts

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bleeding hearts 6

I believe I took this photo in early June last year.

My bleeding hearts, Dicentra spectabilis, aren’t even up yet, and they likely won’t come up until the end of April or beginning of May, but once they begin to grow they will grow fast and should be blooming by the end of May or early June.

I’ve always heard that Bleeding Hearts don’t get very tall but mine often grow close to three feet tall and spread out almost three feet in diameter. I have to stake mine so that they don’t flop – perhaps that’s why mine look taller than most that I see?

So far the only Spring flowers that have bloomed are my crocus’ but I expect that others will follow very soon, perhaps by next weekend if I’m lucky.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.






Groundcover for sun and shade

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I’ve been asked what kind of perennial flowering plants would grow well on a slope, and at the base of the slope in an area shaded by trees.
Groundcovers work well on slopes. If the slope is in a full sun area you could try planting St. John’s Wort (Hypericum), Vinca minor, Ajuga, Verbena, and Wintercreeper. In shady areas you might try Vinca, Ajuga, Wintercreeper, Cornus canadensis (Bunch Berry), Bergenia, and Lamium maculatum.

Prepare the planting area well by removing weeds and amending the soil with organic matter. The organic matter will help hold soil moisture, and act as a natural fertilizer for the plants too. You can also add organic mulch around the plants to keep the weeds down until the plants start to grow and spread.

Foxglove – an old favorite

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Foxglove:

foxglove

Well, this isn’t the best photo I’ve ever taken, but it seems that this is one of the only photos that I happen to have of this particular Foxglove plant. Honestly, some where in my gardening notes I have the name of this species written down, but I can’t remember exactly what species it is at the moment.

Foxglove are lovely plants to grow in the garden. Flower stalks can range from eighteen inches to four feet tall. There can be dozens of elongated bell-shaped flowers on each stalk. The color of the flowers can range from white, cream, yellow to pink, rose, peach, purple and almost black.

There are perennial, annual and biennial varieties of Foxglove (Digitalis). The most popular kind are biennial which means that one year they will only have green leaves, and then the second year the plants flower, set seed and die.

If you enjoy growing foxglove and happen to have the biennial variety you should plant seeds or young plants two years in a row in order to have flowering plants each year. One single plant can produce thousands of tiny seeds, which may germinate readily in your garden.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

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