Dividing Bleeding Heart

Weez, the only way I've been able to get my seeds to germinate for the bleeding heart is to put them in the pot with the plant then I put compost around it in the fall and compost in the spring and they germinate in the spring, I've kept a plant for too long in a pot I'm sure before I got it in the ground but now I have a few babies to plant out this fall to take it place, it could have been the wet winter that killed it too I lost a few plants this winter because of the rain!

Bleeding hearts are great! I planted a white one last year and tis year it's really taken off! I got a pink one last weekend I have to plant now. Photos shortly!

Oh, my! Three feet of snow in April--kind of cramps your gardening style, doesn't it?! Well, weez--I thought the bleeding heart thread was worthy of resurrection! I am clueless about bleeding hearts and I want to know how to make more!

And LeBug, thanks for the tips on how to seed them. So I suppose they might be Wintersowing candidates? Or does the seed have to be really fresh and planted right away?

Oh, I just googled for seed info --- seems a bit challenging: http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Dicentra+spectabilis

I am so thrilled about my bleeding heart! I never thought I could grow them...my plants are from DGers who gave them to me at the ORV RU last spring.

I'm really concerned--no sign of my bleeding heart yet, and I thought it was usually poking up by now. It was here when we bought the house, and in my stupidity I almost dug it up and discarded it, not knowing what it was in the fall when it was all spent and droopy. It's been hale and hearty for 6 years since, but this year there is no sign of it. I am so sad--it adds so much to bouquets, to have those trailing arcs of blossoms! Not that I can stand to cut many flowers. . .haven't quite gotten to the "masses of flowers" that I'd like yet, and it always seems to leave a gap when I cut some.

Trying to remember what I put them in bouquets with. Maybe it was peonies, and it will come up later?

Booker

Bleeding heart die back in the summer in warmer climates, don't they? Here, it stays green all summer, even having a few secondary blooms here and there. I don't know what the life span of a bleeding heart really is. I would imagine that it would begin to die out toward the center, but new growth would keep coming from the outer shoots. My plant gets about 5 feet tall, so I have made a permanent cage around it to keep it from 'flopping'.

I think it is possible that some bleeding heart are hybrids and sterile. I never see seed pods on mine. I had a white one once that put out seed and even self seeded, but I lost it to a cold winter years ago. I know the seed needs to be planted immediately or stored in the freezer to keep it fresh. Doing the latter, it could be winter sown in the late winter or very early spring to imitate the circumstances it needs to allow germination.