What I learned from Ed Lyon

Like many gardeners I fell in love with Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart' the first time I saw it. I planted my first one in 2003 on the north side of the house where it gets dappled shade. Most bleeding hearts are usually listed as going dormant in the summer and wanting "little or no direct sun." 

My typical green-leaved old-fashioned bleeding heart never really goes dormant, though it does slow down. In both of my gardens, this plant has received more sun than the catalogs recommend. My own experience should have been enough to make me question this perceived wisdom when it came to 'Gold Heart.'

My 'Gold Heart' was growing so slowly that I asked Ed Lyon of Allen Centennial Gardens about his experience with this plant. Ed said they could take much more sun than you might think. So I bought a second plant in 2012 and put it where it would get more sun. The very first winter it lost the shade trees around it and has been growing in a mostly southern exposure ever since. 

It is three times the size of the much older plant and seems happy in this location. The soil is good with some moisture which probably helps. But it is the shot of sun that Ed recommended that is making the biggest difference as far as I'm concerned. So nice to have so many garden experts who are members of the WHPS and always have time to answer a question or share a bit of wisdom.

Comments

[Erin @ The Impatient Gardener]

I love 'Gold Heart'! I've grown mine where it gets a tad of morning sun and then a full blast of late-day sun and it seems to have thrived. Well, I thought it did anyway. I had to dig it up to accommodate the big back/side garden switcheroo and I was shocked to find that most of the roots were absolutely rotten. Smelly mush. I was able to salvage a small part of it, which is growing nicely in its temporary pot, but I have never dug up a living plant to find roots like that before. It's a bit of a mystery to me.

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

​After a year of drought in 2012 and then our ghastly winter, nothing surprises me. A friend told me yesterday (she's 89) that her gardening mentor said that if you were going to seriously garden the first thing to know is that "things die." Lots of stuff looks great in the garden — my pink bleeding heart is massive. Must be 3 times its usual size. But many trees and shrubs are leafing out so slowly and erratically. I'm trying to not look at them and get depressed. ​