Hi there! Arent bleeding hearts just gorgeous?? If i were in your aituation, as long as i wasnt worried about the plant dying because of where it is, i would wait until the ground ready for you to start all of your regular gardening, and then move it to where you think it will thrive. If you think the plant may perish by then, the risk of moving it now is more than likely worth it!

ummmmm ..

why need they bloom at the same time???

if one bloomed a few weeks later than the other.. then one might suggest.. that you prolonged the flowering season ...

and with BHs .. its short enough as it is ...

i would leave it be.. and only move it.. in fall.. if it totally failed to bloom .. or had reduced bloom.. both indications that light level is lacking ... presuming they are mature enough to bloom ...

i am thinking BH ... can do ok in some level of shade... but its been decades since i grew them ...

ken

Ken has a good idea!! My old landlord had two large healthy bleeding heart plants in a apot where they only got morning sun, but yes the flowers are only there for so long, so sad

In my experience, the spring sun is not strong enough to damage my BH's. By the time the summer sun arrives, the trees are providing shade.

Plants are individuals even though the are of the same genus and species so you really cannot judge one by the other. I would leave it and see how it does.

Linda

I have a lot of Bleeding Hearts and love them too. If one plant was planted last spring and the other last fall, I would definitely leave them another season before moving them. I have found that each year my bleeding hearts are in the ground, they get bigger and more beautiful.

But, I understand your concern in seeing the difference in growth between the two and recognizing that one is in full sun until the leaves are out on the tree, you can't be sure if that is just a poor location for it. I'd give it one more season before deciding.

The other thing is, that I have heard that bleeding hearts are not easy to transplant. I haven't tried it myself. I have had good luck with mine, because I have a lot of part shade. What I usually do, is just keep adding more and more plants and leaving the originals alone. I would like to hear if anyone has experience in moving them or dividing them, too. And when would be the right time to move one, since they go dormant over the summer and can't be seen again until the spring when they come up?

I haven't transplanted any of my D. spectabilis 'Alba' but when I moved here in 2005 there were multiple species D. spectabilis growing here and there around the property, likely planted by my mother at some point. I decided to re-purpose some of the 350+ patio bricks I dug up (my folks used them for edging) by laying a walkway behind my garage. I hired workers to dig & lay the walkway, repurposed the soil to raise one side of it so I could plant perennials.

There used to be a bleeding heart growing out of a crack in the retaining wall at the base of some steps from the walkway leading down to my walkout cellar. I asked the workers to even up the steps with leftover patio bricks. Somehow the bleeding heart growing out of the crack got moved to the top of the stairs. It's growing in full sun and has come up every year since 2007 which tells me where I am they can evidently handle full sun.

I guess my point is, generally in my experience they're pretty tough. I'm not sure there's much you can do to destroy them if they like where they're growing.

One garden rule of thumb is if it blooms in spring, move it in fall and vice versa. If you move your BH, do it after it's done blooming when it isn't putting all its energy into flowering.

Another tip: I have a white bleeding heart growing in full shade that looked like the photos below in 2010. After our devastating storms in 2011, it barely grew to 1/3 of its previous size the following season.

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Hmmmm.....
My only thought is that last summer, this particular plant died back in the heat so transplanting that one would not have been possible in the fall.

The one that broke off did so before it got too terribly hot and I placed the pot in the shady area where it is now planted and it did not die back until it got cold after I had transplanted it.