Common name: Bleeding Heart
A charming, compact growing bleeding heart that has gorgeous powdery blue foliage and tons of delightful, bright pink flowers.
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ is the perfect plant for today's garden. Offering tremendous value, it's a no fuss, easy to grow and care for perennial that provides great color year after year. Combining beautiful leaf color with lots of pretty flowers, it's a dwarf compact grower with a very long flowering period. Add in, the inherited resilience of these much loved, old-time favorites, a hefty helping of hybrid vigor, larger and more prolific flowers and I think you will see why we are so excited to introduce you to this award winning new perennial.
Exquisite flowers and lots of them
Hanging like little lockets, the showy clusters of drooping heart-shaped flowers are
displayed prominently above the foliage and produced in great abundance. They start
to appear in late spring and early summer, pushing up through the foliage as velvety-red
tipped arrows, and then opening as white tipped, candy-pink, heart shaped flowers.
They are mildly fragrant and with good culture will keep coming for several
months, perhaps even through the midst of summer and well into autumn.
The delicate looking fern-like foliage of Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ emerges a blue-green color, then, as the leaves unfold and mature, they take on a beautiful frosted, powdery blue hue and reflex outward and down to form a dense skirt of foliage that makes a superb background to show off the elegant blooms. Placement will determine the degree of coloration, for plants growing in shady sites are likely to remain a little greener than those that placed in partial shade will display more blue shades.
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ makes a superb addition to the front of perennial beds, mixed borders and woodland settings. The compact, rounded habit means it never outgrows its position, and the silvery-blue mounds will look fantastic even if it is not always in flower. It's a marvelous plant for gardens of all sizes, whether large or small, just one single plant will add color, grace and elegance to a small area; while on larger sites, multiple plants can be massed in drifts to combine their beauty and artistic form. It is descended from and resembles a native east coast species, so it would look "at home" in wildflower areas and because it is a form of the old fashioned bleeding heart it would be perfect in cottage gardens and areas around older style architecture, too.
Bleeding hearts are not normally browsed by deer or eaten by rabbits so in situations where this is a concern, you should find that Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ will remain unscathed.
Like its taller growing relative, the old fashioned bleeding heart, the flowers on Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ last surprisingly well when picked. The stems will not be long enough to make large arrangements, but a few stems, placed in a bud vase, will brighten up a window ledge, work station, or bedside table. When cut early in the morning or late in the evening when the first buds are just opening, it will usually last a week or more in water.
Flower Color: Pink shades
Foliage Color: Blue-Green shades
Sun Tolerance: Partial to Full Shade
Preferred Soil Type: Well drained soil
USDA Plant Hardiness: Zone 5
Plant Height: 10–12”
Plant Spread: 12–14”
Bleeding hearts are woodland dwellers. In nature they grow on rich wooded slopes, thriving in lightly shaded to shady sites where they are protected from the effects of hot afternoon sun.
Resilient, hardy, and easy to grow
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ is a hardy Zone 5 plant. It does well in
ordinary soil but positively thrives in humus rich, well-drained soils that
have the capacity to retain moisture during dry periods. So, mix in plenty
of planting compost or other organic material at planting time and finish off
with a layer of mulch to help retain moisture in summer. Of course, be mindful
of watering until the plants are established. If in doubt, just follow the
planting directions on the tags.
Extending the flowering period
To encourage multiple flushes and extended flowering through the summer, it
is important to keep the soil consistently moist (but never soaking wet).
This is where the thick layer of mulch (2-3") and supplemental watering (as needed)
will extend the flowering and keep the clumps lush and fresh looking.
Akira Shiozaki is a dedicated nurseryman that specializes in choice Japanese native plants. He has been breeding and selecting forms of a highly regarded species (Dicentra peregrina) for many years. He decided to cross it with our easy to grow native fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia), and the result was a series of seedlings that combined the best of the most desirable traits of both parents.
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ combines the reliability, ease of culture and garden performance of our native species, with the striking, pale blue foliage color of its Japanese relative. It has improved vigor which leads to larger, fragrant flowers, and quicker establishment. Compared to both parents the flowers are produced in greater quantity and appear over a very long period.
This increased flowering and all around improvement brings a new level of performance and enjoyment to growing these old-time favorites. Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ is another good example of how Garden Splendor® plants bring you the best of the world's finest plant selections, they are truly "the best of the tried and true and the most promising of the exciting and new."
The perfect time to add years of color to your garden
This is the perfect time to put long-lasting perennial color into your garden. We have
beautiful, premium sized plants that are in tip-top condition and ready to plant now.
As you can see in the video, they are in flower, ready to provide an instant, yet
continuous effect. So visit us soon, and see how Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’
can bring great color for your garden, year after year.
Until next time, enjoy your gardening, its good for you, and for the environment.
David Wilson explains why Candy Hearts is a great improvement over older varieties. See for yourself!
Common name: Bleeding Heart
A charming, compact growing bleeding heart that has gorgeous powdery blue foliage and tons of delightful, bright pink flowers.
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ is the perfect plant for today's garden. Offering tremendous value, it's a no fuss, easy to grow and care for perennial that provides great color year after year. Combining beautiful leaf color with lots of pretty flowers, it's a dwarf compact grower with a very long flowering period. Add in, the inherited resilience of these much loved, old-time favorites, a hefty helping of hybrid vigor, larger and more prolific flowers and I think you will see why we are so excited to introduce you to this award winning new perennial.
Exquisite flowers and lots of them
Hanging like little lockets, the showy clusters of drooping heart-shaped flowers are
displayed prominently above the foliage and produced in great abundance. They start
to appear in late spring and early summer, pushing up through the foliage as velvety-red
tipped arrows, and then opening as white tipped, candy-pink, heart shaped flowers.
They are mildly fragrant and with good culture will keep coming for several
months, perhaps even through the midst of summer and well into autumn.
The delicate looking fern-like foliage of Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ emerges a blue-green color, then, as the leaves unfold and mature, they take on a beautiful frosted, powdery blue hue and reflex outward and down to form a dense skirt of foliage that makes a superb background to show off the elegant blooms. Placement will determine the degree of coloration, for plants growing in shady sites are likely to remain a little greener than those that placed in partial shade will display more blue shades.
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ makes a superb addition to the front of perennial beds, mixed borders and woodland settings. The compact, rounded habit means it never outgrows its position, and the silvery-blue mounds will look fantastic even if it is not always in flower. It's a marvelous plant for gardens of all sizes, whether large or small, just one single plant will add color, grace and elegance to a small area; while on larger sites, multiple plants can be massed in drifts to combine their beauty and artistic form. It is descended from and resembles a native east coast species, so it would look "at home" in wildflower areas and because it is a form of the old fashioned bleeding heart it would be perfect in cottage gardens and areas around older style architecture, too.
Bleeding hearts are not normally browsed by deer or eaten by rabbits so in situations where this is a concern, you should find that Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ will remain unscathed.
Like its taller growing relative, the old fashioned bleeding heart, the flowers on Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ last surprisingly well when picked. The stems will not be long enough to make large arrangements, but a few stems, placed in a bud vase, will brighten up a window ledge, work station, or bedside table. When cut early in the morning or late in the evening when the first buds are just opening, it will usually last a week or more in water.
Flower Color: Pink shades
Foliage Color: Blue-Green shades
Sun Tolerance: Partial to Full Shade
Preferred Soil Type: Well drained soil
USDA Plant Hardiness: Zone 5
Plant Height: 10–12”
Plant Spread: 12–14”
Bleeding hearts are woodland dwellers. In nature they grow on rich wooded slopes, thriving in lightly shaded to shady sites where they are protected from the effects of hot afternoon sun.
Resilient, hardy, and easy to grow
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ is a hardy Zone 5 plant. It does well in
ordinary soil but positively thrives in humus rich, well-drained soils that
have the capacity to retain moisture during dry periods. So, mix in plenty
of planting compost or other organic material at planting time and finish off
with a layer of mulch to help retain moisture in summer. Of course, be mindful
of watering until the plants are established. If in doubt, just follow the
planting directions on the tags.
Extending the flowering period
To encourage multiple flushes and extended flowering through the summer, it
is important to keep the soil consistently moist (but never soaking wet).
This is where the thick layer of mulch (2-3") and supplemental watering (as needed)
will extend the flowering and keep the clumps lush and fresh looking.
David Wilson explains why Candy Hearts is a great improvement over older varieties. See for yourself!
Akira Shiozaki is a dedicated nurseryman that specializes in choice Japanese native plants. He has been breeding and selecting forms of a highly regarded species (Dicentra peregrina) for many years. He decided to cross it with our easy to grow native fringed bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia), and the result was a series of seedlings that combined the best of the most desirable traits of both parents.
Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ combines the reliability, ease of culture and garden performance of our native species, with the striking, pale blue foliage color of its Japanese relative. It has improved vigor which leads to larger, fragrant flowers, and quicker establishment. Compared to both parents the flowers are produced in greater quantity and appear over a very long period.
This increased flowering and all around improvement brings a new level of performance and enjoyment to growing these old-time favorites. Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’ is another good example of how Garden Splendor® plants bring you the best of the world's finest plant selections, they are truly "the best of the tried and true and the most promising of the exciting and new."
The perfect time to add years of color to your garden
This is the perfect time to put long-lasting perennial color into your garden. We have
beautiful, premium sized plants that are in tip-top condition and ready to plant now.
As you can see in the video, they are in flower, ready to provide an instant, yet
continuous effect. So visit us soon, and see how Dicentra ‘Candy Hearts’
can bring great color for your garden, year after year.
Until next time, enjoy your gardening, its good for you, and for the environment.