A Lighthearted Garden: Heart-Shape Plants

A 6-foot-wide heart made of 2-foot-tall boxwood encloses a begonia-filled bed. The pink begonias, which sprout heart-shaped leaves, grow fuller and taller through the season to fill the center.

Bleeding heart dangles from slim stems. There's little wonder why these delicate heart-shaped flowers are a perennial border shade favorite.

Hosta 'June' has heart-shaped green-gold leaves with blue margins. Hostas are among the showiest and most reliable foliage plants for shady locations.

Dominating the central backyard, the formal garden teems with plants in soft shades of pink, white and blue, plus a two-tiered cement fountain topped with a pair of white lovebirds. A blue spruce and two Alberta spruces add greenery all year round. The flower bed appears soft and romantic, filled with plants in pinks and blues whose names or identities fit the theme such as roses and love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena).

An epimedium plant with leaves that are bronze-pink in spring, green in summer, and copper-colored in fall. Flowers appear in spring on loose spikes of small spurred flowers, like miniature columbines. It makes an excellent ground cover.

Sphagnum moss packs the frame of a wire topiary chair, with caladiums, impatiens and ivy planted in the seat.