FREE: Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) Seeds

The listing, Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) Seeds has ended.

This auction is for Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) seeds, approximately 50. These seeds were hand-harvested by me from the plants in my back yard. The photo above is from my flower bed earlier this season. Almost all of my bleeding hearts were pink, but a few white ones bloomed. I don't know if any white bleeding hearts will come from these seeds. Probably not, but you could get a nice surprise of white blooms amid the pink ones.

IMPORTANT: THESE SEEDS *MUST* HAVE A COLD PERIOD BEFORE THEY WILL GERMINATE. These seeds have not been cold-stored, but you can achieve the cold period by placing the seeds in a refrigerator for 2-4 months before planting. You can also achieve this by planting the seeds directly into the ground in the fall and they will go through the frost season naturally before germinating in early Spring.

Bleeding heart has attractive mounded foliage with arching stems of delicate, heart-shaped flowers in spring. It thrives in moist woodland gardens along with ferns and other shade-lovers. Bleeding heart grows best in cool, moist conditions.

These plants love shade and have a very early season - blooming early (March in my zone) and going to seed by May. At this point, they can be cut down to the soil surface if the foliage has turned brown and or no longer pleasing. Sometimes the foliage takes on beautiful peachy, coppery, and yellow shades, and sometimes the plants start to look a bit shabby at this stage. In your garden, bleeding hearts might stay green longer in the season than they do in mine. Seeds can be harvested when the pods begin turning brownish and seeds are black in color.

This packet of seeds may include some light-colored seeds (most likely duds) and other debris such as seed elaiosome (the light brown material attached to the seeds from the pod). Seeds are otherwise clean and the quantity only includes black, healthy looking seeds.