Love Lies Bleeding a Plant Worth Growing

Love Lies Bleeding is an old fashioned Cottage Garden flower grown by our grandmothers but rarely seen today. It is an easy plant to start from seeds, just scatter them around your flower bed and soon you will see dozens of small plants popping up. It does not kike to have it’s roots messed with, keep that in mind if you decide to transplant. You will never find it sold in a local nursery, why I don’t know for it is a lovely and unusual plant to grow.

Last summer I pruned one plant into a tree that grew 6 ft. tall and got so heavy with ropes it split into.

 

 

 

 

In most of its range, it is planted as a summer annual. In temperate regions, (zone 8-10) plants can be started indoors in early spring and transplanted outdoors after the last frost. In zone 9b the arid desert of Las Vegas, once started it becomes a perennial plant. The plant can be grown either upright or as a spreading annual or short-lived perennial. In the picture below I grew seeds in a hanging basket and the florets spilled over almost to the ground. The plant has yellowish green leaves and long ropes of

drooping, crimson tassel-like racemes of tiny flowers in summer and autumn.   In most of its range, it is planted as a summer annual. In temperate regions, plants can be started indoors in early spring and transplanted outdoors after the last frost. Love lies bleeding seeds grew in and around my garden pot.

A. caudatus can grow anywhere from 3 to 8 feet in height, and grows best in full sun. It can handle a variety of conditions, both humid and arid. It is easily grown from seed.