I used to buy the seed in a packet at a hardware, grocery, or garden center store and sow the seeds into the soil in a strip of ground on the west side of my parent's house during various months of May in the 1970's. Full sun would hit the strip between the house and the sidewalk. I usually kept about three plants to become mature annuals about 3 to 4 feet high. I usually would have to stake them there in the 2.5 feet wide strip. I even at least once grew the off-white cultivar a few times. I grew it a few more times around other houses where I have lived too. I believe this species came from southeast Asia. It is a really cool annual in the North that catches everyone's attention.

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Love lies bleeding is a very beautiful plant with red drooping flowers that can grow to about 5 ft tall. They can fall over, so I suggest giving them some sort of support. Leaves are highly nutritious and are nutritionally similar to beets, Swiss chard, and spinach, but are far superior. For example, amaranth leaves contain three times more calcium and three times more niacin than spinach leaves. You can either pick the young leaves raw for salads or cook like spinach. The taste is strong, so I suggest mixing with spinach or other lettuces when eating raw or cooked. When the flower dries out, you can eat the seeds as a grain which is like quinoa in nutrition, but yet again nutritionally better. Pick the dry flower and shake over a pot. Then take seeds and put them in a pot to heat them up to "pop" them. You can eat this grain in cereals or as a delicious additive in soups. You can also grind up the seeds for a flour. Has a nutty flavor.

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My, MY.. bleeding for sure.. That's a wonderful form of the amaranthus.

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Very dramatic specimen plant! It grows 3-5 feet tall, and produces long, drooping tassel-like flowers that will sometimes extend from the very top of the plant to the ground. Easy to grow from seed if you sow it in place, and drought tolerant. This one will be a conversation-starter, so plant it somewhere conspicuous!

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