You don't need to stake a bleeding heart. Their branches are sturdy enough not to need it. Morning sun will be a good place for your plant.

Actually it would be difficult to grow a bleeding heart in a pot. They have very long tap roots that would soon outgrow a pot. They are a woodland plant that grow best unbound.

Thanks blueheron for your reply! I hope I do not sound silly with my questions but I am a newbie as far as gardening goes. My hubby does all the planting and he really likes trees. My reason for staking the plant, is that the plant I got has one really long branch which seems kind of flimsy. I am not familiar with how they grow and what to do with the long branch. It has such beautiful flowers. I really hope it takes off and grows really well.

Hi, Eileen. You don't sound silly at all. We're all learning on these forums.

You can deadhead the branch when the flowers start to drop off. You might get some volunteer seedlings from the dropped seeds. Good luck with your bleeding heart. They are neat perennials.

You didn't mention what type of dicentra you have. If it's D.spectabilis, you can expect it to bloom in mid spring and go completely dormant in summer (leaves and stem will disappear). I mention this so that you don't think it's dead or you did something wrong. D. Exima will bloom sporadically all summer. Both are better garden plants that pot plants. For pots you want tropicals with good foliage interest, or annuals which will bloom all summer. There are some perennials that make good pot subjects, but not many.

Hello Cynthia! The tag does say Spectabilis. I am glad you warned me about the dormancy in the summer. I probably would have thought I did it in. LOL! We did plant it in the ground on the morning sun side of the house. Thanks!

I'm growing one in a container. It is doing fine so far, as are the rest of my containered temperate perennials and shrubs. No need to be limited to 99¢ annuals or tropicals for containers - particularly for a deck. Your dicentra should do quite nicely in that morning sun spot! They can actually take a bit more sun than given credit for although the flower color may wash out a bit and they might go dormant earlier than expected.

Ask away Eileen--that's what we're here for! 10 years ago, I was a newbie. One of the first gardening chores I had to do was divide the beautiful peonies that came with the house. Heart in throat and gardening book in hand, along with advice from my next door neighbor to wait until fall, I went out on a fine October weekend and spent all day digging up, separating, and replanting peonies in a sunnier spot. I was the happiest camper in God's green valley when, the next spring, they sprouted and actually bloomed! I was jumping around in my driveway saying "I didn't kill them! I didn't kill them!"
I'm sure all of us have similar stories about our early days in the garden.

Thanks Jenny and Dawn! I need the encouragement or a push. LOL! I do not mind getting my hands dirty, I just like to know where to start and not to mention I would hate killing my newly bought plants. I want them to live!

I bought a box of bleeding heart plant 10 of them they are bare plant alot of broken ones in the box there are no roots on alot of them how do I get them to root so I can plant them

Any tips on how to get seeds from a bleeding heart? I have mine planted in afternoon sun, and while it flowered beautifully, I do believe it's going dormant now...

It would be better if you made a separate post with your questions. They might be overlooked on this thread.