I have a white bleeding heart growing on the north side of my house in almost full shade. Planted in front of it at the edge of the walkway is Carex 'Ice Dance'/variegated Japanese sedge, a well-behaved ornamental grass that gets about 18-20" tall by 24" wide. There are hosta and astilbe beside and behind the BH so when it goes dormant, those fill in and you'd never know it was there.

Thankyou gardenweed,
The Japanese sedge is lovely. I love the astilbe too, it's very pretty. Can you please tell me how wide and tall astilbe gets? Although my garden faces north, it does get a bit of sun in the morning on the northeast corner of the house and in the afternoon, a bit of northwest sun. I really appreciate your ideas.

Cadence,
If it is like mine and in full shade, it may not dieback. I have a fall blooming purple leafed ligularia in front of my 'goldheart' and variegated hosta in front of my plain green one.
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Flora

beautiful pic!! may I ask what the short pink flowered plant is in front of the ligularia? also there seems to be a shorter blue flowered plant to the right of the hosta (right side of the picture)

Would you have a picture of the same garden a little later in the season? It sure looks nicely put together! :)

Thanks,
The pink flowered perennial is Tiarella 'iron butterfly' and the blue flower is Corydalis 'pere david' which does die back after flowering.
Unfortunately, all I have is a distance pic.
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You can see I circled the bleeding hearts.
Flora

OMG - Flora, your garden is absolutely breath-taking. Thank you so much for sharing your pics. Gives me lots of ideas.

Wow, Flora, absolutely gorgeous! It's the effect I'm striving for, and currently having very little luck.

Thank you for letting us know and also for sharing another picture of your gorgeous garden! wow! :)

I have mine between Hostas and Ferns mostly. Up here, the hostas and ferns leaf out fairly late in the Spring and can take over from the Bleeding Hearts quite nicely.

For me, right now in the garden, Bleeding Hearts are in full bloom and hostas/ferns have popped out of the ground but have yet to completely unfurl and stretch out. The timing is almost perfect :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Some of my bleeding hearts don't die back, some do. I tend to pair them with hostas. I like the idea of the Ligularia and gold heart. I have my goldheart next to Lovepat hosta. My others are next to Astilbes for the most part....

A great companion to bleeding hearts: brunnera macrophylla (false forget-me-not). I especially like the variegated brunnera with them. Virginia bluebells are also nice (mertensia virginica). Gary

Breathtaking Flora! ~ Your garden bed is like an altar w/ the majestic pines the Cathedral!
It made me think of what my sister said ~ visiting VanCouver for a few months ~ *It's like heaven here!*