4

I planted three Bleeding Hearts last year. They were healthy and very pretty. This year there are seven or eight others all around the yard, as far away as fifty feet! They're even popping up under azaleas!

As expected, they ended last season with pods that shriveled up, however, I didn't see them break open. I understand that wildflowers can spread by methods such as seeds being blown by the wind or carried by birds, but we've had bleeding hearts in other places we've lived, and have never seen this behavior.

They're adding beauty to my landscape, free of charge, so I'm not complaining. I'm just wondering about the mechanism.

Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
  • 6,215
  • 8
  • 39
  • 74

1 Answers1

6

Assuming the new ones you're seeing are fairly small, obviously new plants, then you've been lucky - this plant produces seed and it comes true from seed, so if you left the seed pods in place, they've opened and been dispersed (the seeds are often carried by ants, believe it or not), then germinated and grown where they've landed. Just means the ants either dropped some, or the seed deposited itself, and conditions were exactly right for germination and growth. It is known for seeding itself in ideal conditions, so your garden obviously has, or at least, had, this last year, ideal conditions.

Bamboo
  • 131,823
  • 3
  • 72
  • 162