A heart shaped planting bed is easy to design, demarcate, and prepare in a sunny or partly sunny location.
Love-In Plants
Search in garden catalogs for plant names signifying love, affection and friendship. The exotic blue, pink, white, rose and violet flowers of love-in-a-mist, Nigella damascena, reseed to return faithfully in abundance each year. The lacy green foliage appears like mist surrounding the blossoms. Love-in-a-puff, Cardiospermum halicacabum, has tiny white inconspicuous flowers, which become papery globe-shaped green balloons. The three black seeds in each balloon or pod contain a loving message. Grow them to give the heartfelt message on Valentine’s Day.
Kiss-Me Plants
Express playfulness with kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, Polygonum orientale, a fast growing old-fashioned cottage garden plant standing 5 feet tall with gently drooping bright pink flower clusters. Kiss-me-at-the-garden-gate is the common name for two very different but fragrant plants, common soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, and winter honeysuckle, Lonicera fragrantissima. The kiss-me-and-I’ll-tell-you nickname for the butterfly bush, Buddleia davidii, may answer your love’s question, “What are you doing in the garden?”
Friendship Plants
Solidify friendship by giving a bouquet of homegrown Forget-Me-Nots, Myosotis sylvatica. The diminutive plants are covered with dark blue topaz jewels in spring and early summer. Garner friendship by planting lovage, Levisticum officinale, a culinary herb taking only a small space in the garden but its celery like taste will enhance the flavor of salads, potato and poultry dishes.
Clinging Vines
Some of the most romantic flowers come from the tropics. The Mexican native exotic love, Ipomoea lobata, is a radiant flowering vine growing 10-20 feet tall. Tubular flowers change from red to orange to yellow as they enlarge. The hearts and honey vine, Ipomoea luteola, has fire engine red tubular flowers with yellow throats. Hummingbirds adore the nectar of both vines. These vine needs sun and an arbor or trellis to climb like their close kin the sweet potato vine, morning glory and cypress vine. Chain-of-love, Antigonon leptopus, is a vigorous Central American native vine with heart shaped leaves and bright pink flowers.
Bleeding Heart Plants
Some Valentine plants help convey the pain of lost, distant or unrequited love. Bleeding hearts, Dicentra spectabilis, with one-inch heart shaped rose, pink, white or red outer petals and white inner petals resemble broken hearts. Love Lies Bleeding, Amaranthus caudatus, a poignant Victorian garden favorite produces foot long chenille-like red tassels. The tassels make long everlasting cut flowers.
If your heart garden is spacious consider a specimen shrub or grass. Hearts a burstin,’ Euonymous americana, is a demure deciduous shrub with green stems reaching a height of 4-6 feet. Inconspicuous spring flowers produce a warty red capsule resembling a strawberry. In fall the ripe capsule bursts open revealing orange-red seeds inside heart-shaped husks.
Love Grass
There are 250 species of love grasses. Purple love grass, Eragrostis spectabilis, is a native American grass growing 12-18 inches high with reddish purple seed heads.
Once your hearts and flowers garden has a growing season behind it, you will have seeds to share with your Valentines.
VAL101
Arlene Marturano - Arlene Marturano, an educator, consultant, master gardener, and writer advocates gardens as a context and gardening as a tool for ...
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