dicentra bleeding heart

Hi Womble, it is normal for the dicentra to die back no need to do anything to or for just keep a look out for next spring.

very pleased to hear that. thanks moon grower.

I'd just add I'm amazed its only dying back now - usually what happens is, it flowers, and within a month of the flowers finishing, you've got an empty spot in the border ,because the leaves die back immediately! Only to return the following year, though.

hi bamboo. the plant only managed about 5 flowers over the whole summer so i'm guessing that will be why it has lasted so long.

No, mine are only now dying back, too - and they flowered really well!

I'll throw a spanner in the works too and say that mine are still fully clothed !

I deadheaded throughout the summer and they kept flowering until about 4 weeks ago but there's still all the foliage present.

Mine is D. 'King of Hearts', the smaller one, do you think varieties differ that much ?

Interesting subject.

Yes, I reckon so, Louise. I have been waiting for mine to disappear! Mine are D. spectabilis, a white one and a pink.

Extraordinary - one of my gardening books actually says, re Dicentra spectabilis, that it is a bit of a nuisance, this plant, because of the bare patch it leaves in the border by end of July - and that's certainly been my experience. Though I have noticed that it sometimes regrows about 3/4 weeks later.

The great thing about plants is that they can't read the books Bamboo... The number of times I read 'X will do this' or 'Y can't grow in shade/sun/wind' plants get on and grow as they will.

In Austria is June we saw a daphne which is supposed to only grow in partial shade out on a bare hillside flowering its heart out.

I take the point, Moongrower, but it has been my experience with this plant as well.

mine are now starting to die back
been doing my head in with just foliage for ages
x x

Mine are just starting to die back now but most years they do it earlier

Bamboo, I guess the point I was trying to make is that you have to take all book info with a large pinch of salt.

The author can only write about their own experiences and what they themselves have read. Given different situations the same plant will behave in different ways.

Where you live, what your soil is, how you grow the plant will all influence the way it grows, and dies back.

Personally I'm extremely glad that plants can't read or we wouldn't be growing some of the thing that we are :-)

At the end my advice Bamboo is not to trust a book to tell you the correct info - read the monographs on the same species and you will get three entirely different sets of info - all based on the authors opinion and views... and that is all each of us has - an opinion and a view. Hopefully anyone who asks a question realises that.

And hopefully, the questioner interprets the various answers in that way, Moongrower.

well i have to agree with you all. one large plant left a lovely bare bit of earth in june whilst the others are stil in full leaf even if they are starting to teun yellow. the bare earth one just gets a little more sun so i guess the ground is drier there.