Bleeding heart · Pyongyang, Pyongyang, North Korea
When to sow bleeding hearts in Pyongyang
Main outdoor window
31 Oct - 27 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
10 April
In Pyongyang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Apr - 30 Jun
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Pyongyang
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Plant the crowns
31 Oct - 27 Mar
Any time the plant is dormant and the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged: after leaf fall in autumn, or at the end of winter before growth restarts.
In flower
1 Apr - 30 Jun
Bleeding hearts through the year
Against the frost risk in Pyongyang
Why these dates
Plant dormant crowns in autumn or very early spring, 5cm deep. Site it where the summer dieback will not leave a visible hole - behind a hosta or a fern is the usual answer. Do not water it in the hope of keeping the foliage; the dormancy is deliberate.
Hardy to -35C. Emerging shoots are brittle and damaged by hard late frosts, though the plant recovers. Requires a cold winter and does not grow well above zone 8.
Bleeding hearts are planted once and then left in place, so there is no sowing offset to resolve. What matters in Pyongyang is the shape of the year: this crop is dormant through the winter and is planted while it sleeps, any time between leaf fall in autumn and the restart of growth in spring, so long as the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. That is why the window below spans the cold months rather than sitting in the middle of the growing season.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Pyongyang is zone 7a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 2, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Also in Pyongyang
Other flowers to time
Growing bleeding hearts in Pyongyang
When should I plant bleeding hearts in Pyongyang?
Aim for 31 Oct - 27 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 19 Oct - 7 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will bleeding hearts be ready to harvest in Pyongyang?
Expect to start picking around 1 Apr - 30 Jun, based on 110 to 140 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will bleeding hearts tolerate?
Hardy to -35C. Emerging shoots are brittle and damaged by hard late frosts, though the plant recovers. Requires a cold winter and does not grow well above zone 8.