Bleeding Heart Plants for Hummingbirds

The delicate flowers of perennial bleeding heart, plants found naturally in wooded areas, at first seem to be unlikely food sources for hummingbird. Instead of opening out from a narrow tube like trumpets, as do most hummingbird-friendly flowers, bleeding hearts balloon out at the top — the top lobes of the "heart" — then taper to a narrow opening. Yet they nonetheless meet key criteria. Hummingbirds are attracted to flowers that are reddish or pink in color and tubular in shape, characteristics that deter many other nectar competitors, Bleeding heart is also one of the few good hummingbird flowers adapted to shade. It does well in moist, fertile soils.

Sometimes also known as Western bleeding heart or Dutchman’s Britches, the apparently dainty bedding plant Dicentra formosa is tough and tenacious. Once well-established, in the spring bleeding heart’s underground rhizomes send up stems bearing soft, deeply cut, fern-like leaves. By late spring, arched stems bearing heart-shaped pink flowers stand above the blue-green foliage. Hummingbirds can safely access flowers from beneath — inserting their long, narrow beaks into the narrow opening of each flower — because blooms are suspended from arched stems, making it much less likely that birds will collide with nearby vegetation. Pacific bleeding heart is well-adapted to wetlands but is also drought-tolerant. This variety tolerates more sun where summers are cool. Deer don’t usually eat it.

Another North American native, this one found in eastern areas, fringed bleeding heart or Dicentra eximia features the usual, fine-cut ferny foliage and either pink or red flowers. Fringed bleeding heart blooms off and on throughout the summer and prefers sandy loam with plenty of peat. Divide plants periodically — best done in the fall, after foliage dies back — to quickly establish a large bed. But you may not need to bother; fringed bleeding heart sometimes self-seed to the point that it becomes overcrowded. If well-watered, plants tolerate full sun.

Also known as common bleeding heart, Dicentra spectabilis is the species found in commercial nurseries, an ornamental plant native to Japan, China and other areas of Asia. Plants grow larger than North American natives and are somewhat less delicate; clumps can reach 3 feet tall with a 2-foot spread. Various cultivars are available, including the very unusual Gold Heart, which has the typical rose pink flowers and finely cut vegetation. Leaves are bright-gold all season, however, for a striking effect; in southern heat and shade, vegetation may turn lime-green.