Topic: Dicentra (bleeding heart) - division (or multiplication!)

[triffid]

Does anyone know if (and how and when) I can divide or get plantlets from a Bleeding Heart plant? It's about eight years old, so quite sizeable, and neighbours have often asked if they could have a bit.

Trouble is, it lives in between three roses, so for the sake of prickles in my paws I'm hoping it's possible to do whatever's necessary before the roses get going again.  (If not, I'll be gardening in full bike gear  ;D)

[Ceratonia]

The roots are really easy to break (brittle I guess), so I'm not sure that dividing it is a good idea - they definitely don't like being dug up.

I think you can take root cuttings (in spring).

[not an expert - I'm sure one will be along shortly though  :) ]

[Palustris]

Book says division from Oct top March or rootcuttings ditto. All I have ever done is pulled a bit up and planted it where I want it.

[norfolklass]

I think they're quite resilient. my mum had a couple of clumps in a bed that she decided she didn't want any more so she pulled them up in bits and chucked them on the compost heap. then next year they flowered so I rescued them and now they're in my garden ;D

[triffid]

Brilliant!  ;D ;D  Now all I need to do is find out if my DS is the kind that hates being dug up or the kind that thrives even when chucked into the compost!

No, seriously, thanks very much. It sounds as if I'd better get in there in a month or so (assuming that the rain's stopped by then)...

Eric, when you say you 'pull a bit up and planted it where you want it', do you mean just roots before it starts to shoot, or rather with stalks and all once it's in leaf?



This is where I so miss my beloved dad, who used to divide plants with his bare hands or a casual leant-on spade, without even thinking about when/where/how...

Blast. Can't even write about him without welling up.

[Tulipa]

This is just the thread I need!  And my DS is in amongst the roses too, I could have written exactly the same thing - thank you!

Triffid, I know how you feel about your Dad, mine has been gone almost 15 years and I can still well up.  But it is good to have such wonderful memories of him, they are very precious, don't worry about it, treasure them. :)

[triffid]

((big hug)) for Tulippa.  Can't believe it; it'll be 10 years this May since my Dad died.

Don't worry, I'm not sitting feeling sorry for myself -- he was a wonderful man and we didn't have any unsaid stuff that I have to carry around, as so many grown-up children do when their parents die.
It just takes me by surprise how strong my emotions are, and how close to the skin they lie.  :-\

[Mrs Ava]

I moved my dicentra a couple of years back, and I must have left some in the ground because it continues to grow in the old place quite happily, plus the new place!  Bonus.

(I will join the 'missing my dad' society.  7 years this year.  Old bugger - he is so going to get a telling off when I find him!)

[manicscousers]

I've got 2 dicentra, bought the first one, when it grew it was the wrong one so got the bleeding heart one next, love it
mine's my mum, 30 years and still miss her,  :) :-\ :), lots of good memories, though  :)

[triffid]

(I will join the 'missing my dad' society.  7 years this year.  Old bugger - he is so going to get a telling off when I find him!)

sniffle   :-\ ;D

Mine firmly believed in immortality.
The kind you get from your children.
'My mother always live on; you have her mouth and her laugh,' he used to say.

And now I look at Small Triffid and see a new edition of my father when he was a long tall leggy boy.

Funnily enough, the dicentra was a gift from another gardener who's gone to be 'compost and roses' (another of my dad's lines). So all the more reason to insure its continued growth!

[Palustris]

That is it, just ferreted around in the soil til I found a bit with new growth just appeariing. dug it up and replanted it.
Anyone puts my remains near any roses is gonna get haunted!

[triffid]

Eric -- no roses? What then?

[Robert_Brenchley]

The roots are brittle, but you won't kill it by digging it up and moving it. The worst that could happen is that it might take a year or two to recover.

[Palustris]

Triffid, anything but Roses, as a founder member of the WE Hate Roses Group!

[Mrs Ava]

I am a seconder on the hate roses group.  Wouldn't want lillies either thanks. (altho I do love them!)

[triffid]

Thanks Robert; that's really good news as ultimately I probably will have to move it.
Right now, though, I don't actually want to move the big plant; just to steal some bits from it for neighbours if I can (and for me too, by way of insurance).

Last year it surprised me by how early it came up, so I want to be lying in wait for it this year to try to get some offshoots or whatever ...
I'll probably try Eric's 'ferretting in the soil' method(!) which is similar to mine with lily of the valley.


Emma and Eric  ... I realise what a disappointment I am. I love roses.
 ;D
Big, heavenly-scented monster ramblers and climbers like Albertine and Josephine Bruce; a full-grown Canary Bird, covered with small sun-bright flowers; or something that looks as if it's been dipped in paint, like Camaieux...

Oops. Raving again!
:-[  *shuffles feet and shuts up*  ;)

[Ceratonia]

Sounds like I should rephrase my original post to say "its roots are brittle and it doesn't like being dug up by cack fisted amateurs"?   ;)

It's maybe worth mentioning that the whole plant is poisonous and some people get a rash/skin irritation from handling it, so it might not just be the roses that you need gloves for.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've been put off at times by hard-pruned modern roses, but I do like old varieties when they're left to do their thing in peace.

[triffid]

Sounds like I should rephrase my original post to say "its roots are brittle and it doesn't like being dug up by cack fisted amateurs"?   ;) ;D

In that case I should probably abandon the whole idea and leave it alone  ;)

It's maybe worth mentioning that the whole plant is poisonous and some people get a rash/skin irritation from handling it, so it might not just be the roses that you need gloves for.

The garden as I inherited it was (and still is, in part) a festival of prickles and poisons (yew, alchemilla, laburnum, solanum jasminoides, berberis, pyracantha... )
-- I'm all too used to "handling with care"!

[jennym]

I divided my Dicentra spectabilis last year in Feb - just took a sharp spade, sliced down into it and divided it in half, dig up one half, filled in the hole remaining with a bit of soil, and replanted the other half elsewhere - no problem, both survived and did really well. The original plant was about a foot in diameter.