Amaranthus hypochondriacus Green Thumb seeds - Love-lies-bleeding

Amaranthus hypochondriacus 'Green Thumb' is a small decorative annual love-lies-bleeding, selected for its very bright apple-green flower spikes and naturally compact habit. This selection has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit, a guarantee of reliability in the garden. Its soft green panicles bring an original touch to summer borders and flower arrangements, fresh or dried.

Botanically, this variety belongs to the Amaranthaceae family. The species Amaranthus hypochondriacus is known as prince's feather, love-lies-bleeding or hypochondriac love-lies-bleeding, more widely under the generic name of red amaranth. The wild species is native to the central United States and especially Mexico, where it grows in seasonally dry tropical areas. It is an annual plant grown both for its ornamental spikes and for its edible leaves and seeds.
The cultivar ‘Green Thumb’ differs from the typical species by its much more compact habit (approximately 40–60cm instead of 1 to 2m) and the lime-green colour of its inflorescences. Each plant forms an upright clump, branched from the base, with sturdy stems bearing large, oblong to lanceolate leaves, dark green washed with bronze. Flowering is possible approximately 3 months after sowing. The inflorescences are upright, very dense panicles, composed of tiny flowers tightly packed into bright yellow-green spikes. Flowering occurs from July to October, as long as temperatures remain mild. The inconspicuous individual flowers are grouped into highly decorative woolly spikes, pollinated mainly by the wind. They produce small dry capsules containing numerous fine, shiny seeds, which can be harvested for sowing the following year.

Love-lies-bleeding 'Green Thumb' finds a place in cut flower beds, borders and large containers. It pairs particularly well with apricot, soft pink and purple blooms. You can pair it with Zinnia elegans ‘Queeny Lime Orange’, Cosmos ‘Apricot Lemonade’, with apricot petals tinged with pink, for a very soft combination. In a different tone, try it with Salvia viridis ‘Blue Monday’ with blue-violet bracts, and an annual grass Briza maxima.

Like all love lies bleeding, the botanical species has a long history: in pre-Columbian America, grain amaranths, including Amaranthus hypochondriacus, were cultivated for food and used in certain rituals, their seeds sometimes serving as a base for moulded offerings, proof of their symbolic as well as nutritional importance.