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Recently I treated myself to this pretty Dicentra formosa ‘Aurora’ at a local plant market. It’s not the most practical of plants to choose for a Suffolk garden, given our often hot and dry weather. I do however have a couple of shady spots in the garden, so I’m hoping that it will be happy enough in one of them.
I must admit that there was a lot of nostalgia involved in choosing this plant. When we lived in Scotland I used to grow the very similar Dicentra formosa ‘Langtrees’. That one had very silver-grey foliage and made a wonderful ferny-looking ground cover. (It did die back if the weather got hot though, so needed to be amongst other plants that would hide bald patches.)
Dicentra formosa isn’t as showy as the better-known ‘Bleeding Heart’, Dicentra spectabilis, which has had its name changed to ‘Lamprocapnos spectabilis’. (Why are plant names inevitably changed to something that would make a great tongue-twister?) But I reckon this is a lovely plant which should look good alongside the other plants in my garden…if I can help it survive!
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 