It's easy to have a heart

Ruth’s guide to adding this popular perennial to your garden

ONE of my favourite jobs in late winter is looking around the garden at gaps in the borders and considering what new plants would go well and where.

An ideal and extremely attractive perennial for compact spaces is bleeding heart, which produces stems of sweet cardiac-shaped flowers in shades of pink and white among attractive leaves in shades of green and gold.

Because scientists think it’s a good idea to keep gardeners on their toes, bleeding hearts used to be called Dicentra spectabilis, but the name has now been changed to Lamprocapnos spectabilis (although they are still commonly referred to as Dicentra).

I ordered mine online and as soon as it arrived I removed its packaging and checked that it looked healthy. Only the crown is visible, but it should soon grow into a healthy plant.

Bleeding heart plants are easy-going and happy growing almost anywhere. They do well in light shade and in between larger shrubs, but are also happy in full sun as long as their soil remains sufficiently damp.