How to Divide Bleeding Hearts Plants

Bleeding hearts are perennial plants of the dicentra genus, and gardeners often divide them to keep their size and numbers under control. Older bleeding hearts plants can also be rejuvenated through division, which is a money-saving way to increase the vigor and bloom in your garden.

Things You'll Need

• Watering can, hose or sprinkler
• Pruning shears
• Spade or shovel

Instructions

1. Plan to divide your bleeding hearts in the early autumn, as they are spring-blooming perennials. In most regions of the northern hemisphere, September usually provides ideal weather conditions.

2. Give your bleeding hearts a healthy drink of water on the days leading up to your planned division. Thoroughly watering perennials prior to division is essential to ensure that the plants have enough nutrients stored to make a healthy transition.

3. Prepare holes for your divided plants. Dig down to a depth of 6 to 8 inches, allowing ample room on all sides for the new plants to grow.

4. Prune the stems of the plant, and trim any excess flowering before you lift out the parent plant. The stem should be clean to at least 6 inches in height.

5. Dig deep into the ground on all sides of the bleeding heart, beginning from a radius at least 4 to 6 inches away from the plant. Thus, you should end up digging a deep circle around the plant that is 10 to 12 inches in diameter.

6. Pry beneath the roots of the plant's stem and gently lift it out of the ground.

7. Cut the parent plant's stems into clumps about 4 to 6 inches in diameter. Expect to be able to divide a single bleeding heart plant into at least three new plants, though this will vary depending on the size the parent plant reached before division. Bleeding hearts can grow to become quite large, in which case a half-dozen divisions or more might be made from its stem.

8. Plant the divided stems into the holes you prepared earlier, at the same depth that the stem of the parent plant was at when you dug it up and removed it. Fill in the hole with soil.

9. Water your newly divided bleeding hearts plants well in the days and weeks after you plant them. All divided plants should grow at roughly the same rate.

Tips & Warnings

• Divide your bleeding hearts plants on a cool day with cloud cover. Ideally, you'll want to wait to perform the division until several consecutive days of rain are expected. This will ensure the newly divided plants receive immediate and adequate water to grow.