Bleeding Heart: 8 Beautiful Companion Planting Ideas

Brightening Up a Shady Flower Bed

With its abundant display of white, pink, or red bell-shaped flowers, the Bleeding Heart brings life to dull corners of partial shade, adding colour, volume, and light from early spring.

Planted at the edge of a flower bed under the soothing shade of tall trees, mixed with bold and graphic foliage that will take over in mid-summer, it can be surrounded by ferns with vibrant green or purple foliage (Lady Fern ‘Red Beauty’), hostas (Hosta ‘Big Daddy’), or refreshing spring-flowering spurges like Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae or Euphorbia characias ‘Glacier Blue’. Opt for white varieties of Dicentra (‘Alba‘ or ‘Ivory Hearts‘) to subtly brighten this leafy environment.

Athyrium niponicum pictum ‘Red Beauty’ – Dicentra spectabilis ‘Ivory Hearts’ – Euphorbia characias ‘Glacier Blue‘ – Hosta ‘Big Daddy’

To create a beautiful spring scene

For an opulent and fresh display, pair the Bleeding Heart with a profusion of small flowers forming a carpet, such as those of brunneras, lily of the valley, wood lilies, primroses, dwarf cyclamens, pink or white tulips, and daffodils. Foxgloves, hellebores, peonies, and columbines rising in the background will create the perfect setting for this delicate, flower-filled corner.

Brunnera macrophylla – Primula vulgaris – Dicentra spectabilis – Daffodil

In harmony with foliage and ferns

We choose the fern, the ideal companion plant for the Bleeding Heart, to create combinations that rely entirely on finely sculpted foliage. The glaucous leaves of Dicentra ‘Ivory Hearts’ or D. ‘Burning Hearts®’ will weave between the bright green fronds of a male fern (Dryopteris filix-mas). Dicentra spectabilis’Goldheart®’, the golden Bleeding Heart, with its luminous golden-yellow foliage, will work wonders alongside Dryopteris erythrosora, a fern with a lovely coppery hue. These woodland perennials will create lush scenes adorned with bright pink or pure white bell-shaped flowers.

Foliage of Dicentra Burning Hearts® – Dryopteris erythrosora – Dicentra spectabilis Goldheart® – Dryopteris filix-mas

In a simple and fresh white garden

White varieties, such as Dicentra ‘Ivory Hearts’ with its blue-grey-green leaves and ivory-white spurred flowers, or D. s. ‘Alba’, perfectly complement a white garden and harmonise beautifully with metallic or green tones (ferns, hostas, lady’s mantle, variegated Solomon’s Seal, ornamental grasses…). It will look stunning surrounded at its base by hellebores or immaculate white daffodils. Foxgloves (‘purpurea Alba’), Astilbe arendsii ‘Bumalda’ with its long white plumes, masterworts, fairy flowers, smooth hydrangea, black cohosh, and tree peonies will effortlessly take turns at the heart of this monochromatic border.

Dicentra spectabilis alba – Hosta Emily Dickinson – Epimedium pauciflorum – Polygonatum multiflorum

To add a touch of whimsy to an English mixed border

The Bleeding Heart is a must-have for English cottage mixed borders, bringing originality and elegance. Plant them in the background with tree peonies or hydrangea hedges, and they will create a delightful setting. The low-growing varieties, such as Dicentra formosa ‘Aurora’ , used as ground cover, are better suited for narrow flower beds.

When mixed with astrantias, lady’s mantle, columbines, hellebores, hardy geraniums, astilbes, lungworts, and foxgloves, the ‘Stuart Boothman’ or ‘Aurora’ varieties are beautiful assets in this lively style of planting.

Lady’s Mantle – Columbine ‘Nora Barlow’ – Hardy Geranium ‘Versicolor’ – Dicentra formosa ‘Aurora’

To make the pink rise!

Dare to combine bold tones by pairing a Bleeding Heart such as ‘Burning Hearts®’, ‘Bacchanal’ with carmine red flowers, or a D. ‘Luxuriant’ with purplish-pink blooms, with a Cape Fuchsia bearing vermilion or purple flowers.

Alongside a Red Comfrey, a Digitalis mertonensis with large raspberry-pink flowers, a magenta-pink Chinese Astilbe, a Bergenia purpurascens, a Masterwort with lilac flowers, a Columbine ‘Black Barlow’, a creeping purple Bugle, or the pink inflorescences of a Japanese Spirea, it will create a stunning effect.

The red varieties can also be paired with the vibrant or warm colours of a hardy geranium ‘Bob’s Blunder’ or a Spigelia marilandica with bright red tubular flowers.

Grey foliage (Artemisia, Hostas, etc.) adds a softness of tone that harmonises beautifully with this range of pink hues.

Dicentra Burning Hearts® – Bergenia ‘Abendglut’ – Symphytum rubrum – Astrantia major ‘Hadspen Blood’

In shades of blue and grey

Alongside a beautiful ‘Hosta tardiana ‘Halcyon’ with its blue-grey leaves adorned with metallic reflections, the glaucous hue of the leaves of a Dicentra ‘Stuart Boothman’ will enhance all azure-flowering plants: the pure blue of Caucasian forget-me-nots, periwinkles, the deep purple of an Iris sibirica, or the intense blue of an Ajuga incisa ‘Frosted Jade’ (cut-leaved bugle). The effect is equally guaranteed near a bright blue Chinese Corydalis, which forms a lovely carpet of electric blue tubular flowers, or the deep blue blooms of Omphalodes Cappadocica ‘Cherry Ingram’.

Ajuga incisa ‘Frosted Jade’ – Hosta tardiana ‘Halcyon’ – Corydalis flexuosa – Omphalodes Cappadocica Cherry Ingram

With summer-flowering perennials

When its foliage disappears in mid-summer, the Bleeding Heart leaves an unsightly gap: to avoid a bare-looking flowerbed, pair it with Masterworts, Japanese Anemones, Silver Candles, and Hardy Geraniums with their delicate blooms. Also consider combining it with non-flowering species like ferns and ornamental grasses, which will create a persistent or semi-persistent green backdrop.

Geranium nodosum ‘Le Clos du Coudray’ – Carex – Anemone ‘Ruffled Swan’ – Cimicifuga racemosa