You are a few zones away from me but mine are just still coming up out of the soil. The tallest one is about 6" high and 4" wide while the others in more shaded areas are only about 2 and 3" in height. I would give them more time. I was told to put them in the shade so 3 of them are almost always in shade while one sits in the sun part of the day. Well darn it if the one in the sun didn't do well and the 2 in the shade died back before fall last year. I was counting on having to buy two new ones to replace them but "voila!" they both showed back up again this spring even though they are smaller than the one in the sun. I checked again at the garden center and it indeed says shade and can tolerate 'some' sun but the staff at the store told me I should stick with shade. Go figure. :o/ THEN my husband accidentally squatted on another in my backyard woods-edge and then ground it into mush with his boots. When I looked yesterday the darn thing has popped back up again and isn't struggling at all. And then in the front my little boy was doing "tricks" with his skateboard, fell off the porch and squashed the biggest of the bleeding hearts that I described to you above so I figured it was dead but it's coming back too so they can't be all 'that' fragile. I would keep them and just see how things go, they are SOOO pretty waving in the breeze. It'd be a shame to let them just die.

Barb

Thanks Barb, I feel better now. Someone on another forum was talking about seed pods already and I got worried!

Well, I do live in the same area as you, and mine are blooming a bit already, but if you have leaves, I wouldn't worry. Where there's foliage, there's hope. If they're not up at all yet, I'd be concerned. They do generally like shade. My best one, a pink spectabilis at my old house in Chicago, spent about half of the year in deep building shade and the other half in dappled tree shade. It did very well. I brought it with me to this house, where I gave it better soil, more sun, and possible too much competition from nearby hosta and cimicifuga, and it dwindled away.

Hmm....my two pink ones have been blooming for nearly 3 weeks already. In fact, the blossoms closest to the main stems are a bit whitish now. Both are in front of the house receiving a bit of afternoon sun. They are about 4 years old grown from a 1 gallon pot. I live in Chicago toward O'Hare airport.

Oh, OK then pitiminai, don't you winter sow? I think your w/s stuff came up a few weeks before mine. Your Bleeding Heart gets some sun, so it's probably warmer than mine during the day. My B/Hs are about 3 1/2 ft tall (I have 2 this size) and another smaller one is about 2 ft tall. They are growing ok, just not blooming yet. If our w/s stuff is an example, I might be ok.

BTW, I live about 40 minutes north of O'Hare, on the Lake Co/Cook Co border. (It's those darn micro-climates at work again!)

I think you are right about your microclimate. Yes, I did winter sow and germination started a couple weeks before yours.

Gotta love this weather, though except we need rain badly this very minute.

Good luck.