Other Names:  Heart Leaf Leopard's Bane, Eastern Leopard's Bane

Description:

Produces abundant cheerful golden daisy-like flowers early in the season; pair up with late flowering bulbs or forget-me-nots; this cool season perennial is not humidity and heat tolerant, best in partial shade with consistent moisture

Ornamental Features

Heart-leaved Leopard's Bane features showy yellow daisy flowers with gold eyes at the ends of the stems from early spring to early summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its heart-shaped leaves remain dark green in color throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Heart-leaved Leopard's Bane is an herbaceous perennial with a mounded form. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and should be cut back in late fall in preparation for winter. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Heart-leaved Leopard's Bane is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Rock/Alpine Gardens
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Heart-leaved Leopard's Bane will grow to be about 8 inches tall at maturity extending to 12 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 12 inches. Its foliage tends to remain low and dense right to the ground. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen! As this plant tends to go dormant in summer, it is best interplanted with late-season bloomers to hide the dying foliage.

This plant performs well in both full sun and full shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone over the growing season to conserve soil moisture. This species is not originally from North America. It can be propagated by division.

Heart-leaved Leopard's Bane is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers against which the thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.