# @ahs_gardening on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DXXGhGdE5ke
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/64523255-ahs-gardening-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f4386035e6.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-04-20T16:56:36.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** American Horticultural Society | American Gardener Magazine (@ahs_gardening) — https://gondola.cc/ahs_gardening

## Caption

*NATIVE PLANT OF THE WEEK*⁠
Dutchman’s Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria, Zones 3–8)⁠
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The smallest of the bleeding hearts, this petite woodland perennial is a fleeting delight. Enjoy them for 2 to 3 weeks in spring before they go dormant until the following year.⁠
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Native Habitat⁠
Moist woodlands and shady rock outcroppings in eastern North America from Nova Scotia to North Carolina and west to Kansas, with a western population in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.⁠
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Why Grow It⁠
• Grows 4 to 6 inches tall⁠
• Finely-cut, lacey, blue-green foliage⁠
• Cute ¾-inch white, sometimes pinkish, flowers look like upside-down trousers or breeches⁠
• Provides an early source of nectar for a variety of long-tongued bees⁠
• Blooms after the ground thaws, beginning in March or as late as May, depending on location⁠
• Plants form tiny, pinkish bulblets at base of plants that can be separated after dormancy and replanted⁠
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Growing Tips⁠
• Easiest to plant as bulblets in late spring or early summer for appearance the following spring; can be challenging to grow from seed⁠
• Rich, moist, well-drained , slightly acidic soil⁠
• Shade to filtered shade⁠
• Will spread and form colonies or groundcover over time where conditions are ideal⁠
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Design Tips⁠
• Plant with other woodland natives like woodland phlox (Phlox divaricata), Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), and Hepatica americana.⁠
• Mix them in a shady border with ferns, lungwort (Pulmonaria sp.), and rue anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides).⁠
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Did You Know…⁠
The seeds of Dutchman’s breeches are distributed by ants, which collect them to eat the fleshy appendages called elaiosomes.⁠
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Caution⁠
Dutchman’s breeches is poisonous if ingested.⁠
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Photos (all iNaturalist)⁠
Ed Alverson⁠
Don Marsille⁠
Nathaniel Sharp⁠
Broccoli beast⁠
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Read about more native Dicentra in “Bleeding Hearts and Their Kin” in the January/February 2020 issue of The American Gardener, available in the magazine archives at ahsgardening.org.⁠
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#nativeplants⁠

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