What do you do with bleeding hearts?

A friend gave me a huge clump of bleeding hearts this spring. Now they are starting to lose their beauty, and I'm wondering what to do with them. Do I clip the flowers? Do I leave the foliage alone for the season? It is so pretty that I'd like to treat it right so it will return again next year! Thanks in advance for any information.

Rose

All I do is let it turn yellow and cut it down. It will look really bad when it trully is finished. It sure is sad when all the flowers are gone so soon. But the foliage still looks kinda good. Wish the hearts would stay around a whole lot longer. Ronna

The foliage will die back once it gets really hot.
I have Hostas planted nearby, so as the dicentra foliage starts to look ratty,
it's hidden by the growth of the hostas. Works out really well.
Then I sit back and wait for next year's show again.
I love the golden variety. Here's mine from a few weeks ago.

One more view.
Dicentra spectabilis GoldHeart.

Thanks! That gold one is beautiful! I think I ordered one of those from a coop (not knowing what it really was!). Was surprised to see it in the yard this spring :-)

Rose

Oh I love my bleeding hearts! I even have a white one I forgot all about. Can not wait to see them every spring. Ronna

They will go dormant but not necessarily "die back". Mine last year laid down on the ground for a nap but were never truly gone. This year they were huge and overtaking everything around then so I just pruned them as needed. The one on the left was covering an Ice Age Trail hosta and an Orange Marmalade hosta so I just cut back enough stems to be able to see the hostas.

Doug

I cut mine back when they start to look ratty.

I also let them die back naturally and they are overtaken by other plants so I don't really notice the dying foliage. I love my white form.

I purchased a fern leaf dicentra last fall. "Candy Hearts" it is supposed to bloom until frost and not die back. It made it through the winter and is blooming. Does anyone have one of these and do they bloom all summer? My fingers are crossed. I also have an old fashioned dicentra that dies back every summer. So sad. Love the little hearts, so when I heard of this one I had to get it.

I have mostly the tall spectabilis dicentra. I have discovered that one can never entirely remove them--if you leave a piece you will sooner or later have a plant. I now have three white ones because I moved the original twice.
My dicentras are in shade, so they really don't die down until very late in the season.
My little fern-leaved ones (whose name I can't remember) bloom sporadically all season after the early flush of bloom. They seed themselves--I just found a blooming plant IN the base of my clethra!

And speaking of dicentra dormancy, how about Dutchman's Breeches, dicentra cucullaria? I have to mark them well because by June there will be no trace.

My white one.

Ooooo, that is so pretty. That white really pops in the shade. I planted one in the yard at one time but the hubby kept mowing it over thinking it was a weed. My fault, I didn't have it marked or protected from him.

Staceysmom I don't have the fern-leaf but I will be getting it now. Thanks.

As to care...........they will take care of themselves. Mine is a clump that has been in the same shady place for more than thirty five years. I seem to forget it untill it blooms again every spring. My wife and I drug it here from her mother's home as something we all liked. I can assure you it just got planted and promptly forgotten.

I keep my bleeding hearts looking fresh all season; even one that was grown in a fairly hot and sunny location.

Some keys:

1) Once the plant is done flowering, cut it down by at least half, or even 1/3rd
2) Keep it moist once you've cut it back
3) If it starts looking ratty at any point, cut it back again
4) Enjoy the (very) sporadic rebloom

For several years in a row I've managed to keep my dicentra spectabilis looking fresh using this method. And yep, I do even get a few stalks to rebloom. Keep in mind, though, that once the plant really starts to yellow and go dormant you're out of luck. The trick is to never let it get to that stage.

Other than watering it after I cut it back, I give my bleeding hearts no extra care. They seem to like it that way.

Can you grow bleeding hearts from seed or is it best to start with a plant?

Oh, you can grow from seed, witness the numerous seedlings all over my and my daughter's gardens. It'd be far easier, though, to ask another gardener for several of the pesky seedlings that spring up in the darndest places.`

Kaylyred - Amazing that you can keep the plants looking fresh all summer. I usually just wait for the inevitable yellowing with sadness. Mine usually don't yellow until mid-summer but I'm going to try your technique. I've been watching mine closely anyway, trying to collect seed pods.
I did dig up a seedling a month or so ago and potted it up for my daughter. It's growing very happily in the pot for the moment. Would be nice if I can find a few more once I trim back the parent plants.

Quiltjean, going back to your comment about dicentra cucullaria...
I planted it for the first time last year..
It came up and bloomed a little this year - it was a small plant to start with.
I was really pleased, since it has nice dissected foliage and the flowers are charming.
But now I see it popping up in about a 6 foot radius around the original small plant.
There are a couple dozen clusters of very typical leaves scattered around.
It's a little alarming.
Is it invasive? Is it spreading by runners, or reseeding itself?
I don't know much about it.

My experience with seedlings is that mowing over them at four inch cut makes them a
non- issue. I may get a new plants in close to the original planting. Mine are about half in under another huge shrub. My mowing is all that I have ever done. It just exists there in the shade it seems to like. I have never fed either anything more than grass clippings.

Weerobin, I don't know about your dicentra cucullaria. Mine spread by little offsets, but then I ripped a lot of it out by mistake when I removed some rampaging eupatorium cerulium("perennial ageratum")-- lovely plant in the fall but spreads like mint! Perhaps your dicentra went to seed. Anyway, lucky you! No, I have not found it invasive in the several years I've had it. The problem is more that I have to mark it and the Virginia bluebells, both of which disappear soon after flowering. I plant impatiens around the sites.

Thanks, Quiltjean. I guess I'll figure it out this spring.

Weerobin, I always knew that Dicentra cucullaria was spread by ants but never knew why. Found this interesting information: Dutchman's breeches is one of many plants whose seeds are spread by ants, a process called myrmecochory. The seeds have fleshy organs called elaiosomes (fleshy or oily appendages) that attract ants. The ants take the seeds to their nest, where they eat the elaiosomes and discard the seeds in their nest debris, some distance from the mother plant, where they are protected until they germinate. They also get the added bonus of growing in a medium made richer by the ant nest debris.

Wow, RCN.
You've supplied my weird fact of the day.
What a peculiar world!

This thread caught my eye because I have to move two of my bleeding hearts, 1 pink flower, 1 white. When is it okay to move them? Mine are finished blooming, in fact the pink is in danger of being overrun by the neighbors nasty morning glory vines. Please advise.

TIA,
Roni

PS Thought the "wierd fact of the day" was cool! I too have a wierd fact to share with the kids (and anyone who will listen).

LOL Weerobin, guess you'll be watching the ants to see where they decide to "plant" your Dicentra next!

Roni, I've never moved Bleeding Hearts in the summer before but since they're going dormant I don't see why it wouldn't be safe to do it now?

quiltjean, I think I solved my problem of "marking" my Dutchmen's Breeches so I know where they are next spring :) This spring I planted Dicentra 'Luxuriant' right behind them - they're just starting to show their foliage when the early blooming Dutchmen's Breeches are disappearing and quickly fill out to cover the bare spot and bloom all summer! I had a similar "problem" with the bare spots left by my Dicentra 'Gold Heart'. A few years ago I solved those bare spots by planting Hardy Begonias on either side of the Gold Heart. The Begonias are always slow to show their faces in the spring but by the time Gold Heart has gone dormant they've filled the spot and I have beautiful blooms later in the summer :)

Thank you, RCN48, for the information on the elaiosomes. I know that my scilla siberica, puschkinia and chionodoxa are spread that way, but I didn't know about dicentras. I guess that would explain the far-flung seedlings! Weird the fact might be, but very useful, especially since I had forgotton the actual name of the elaiosomes!