New Guinea impatients

Dicentra exima or formosa, var. "Luxuriant" is common. Pink or white flowers bloom from early spring through frost and are perennial. Do well where hostas grow. I use them in combination with impatience and torenia. New Guinea imp. like at least some sun. You might add some coleus for color.

Yes, I agree, maybe a small spot of Bleeding Hearts (pink) with a splash of purple from violets would look very calming. Bleeding hearts grow so fast you can practically see them growing and they produce lovely leaves that waft in the breeze much like a fern. "dicentra formosa luxuriant" is nice as it has a bluish tinge to the green leaves that contrast nicely with the pink hearts. I do find that the common Bleeding Heart (dicentra spectrabilis) is more hardy though. All depends on the look you are going for. Even in it's first year a common Bleeding heart will grow to 2-3 feet tall and larger after the first season. Here in southern Ontario I've seen them as large as 5'x5' but I'm sure those are very old. Luxuriant is more dainty and seems to grow slower and stay lower to the ground about 1'x1' which might be more suitable for a gravesite. The pink and blue-green of the dicentra with the rich purple of the low clumping violets is very pretty.

(of note though...the dicentras will go dormant and disappear if the weather is too hot and dry but will come back again the next year, as will the violets)

Barb

Thanks for the advice. I went with just red impatiens, "regular" variety (not New Guinea). There are some graves with bleeding hearts and I think they look VERY nice, but my dad's already has 3' evergreen bushes on each side, so I need something small for the front.

Next year maybe I'll try coleus. He always did impatiens and coleus in our flowerboxes, so that would be appropriate. In a few years when this annual planting ceases to be therapeutic I'll figure out what annuals to plant. Thanks for your help.