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harvesting bleeding heart seeds

16 years ago

I was checking the bleeding heart to see if the pods were drying out enough to harvest when one of the branches snapped off in my hand. It has seven pods on it and they are obviously full of seeds. Can anyone tell me if they will be viable (is that the right word?) or not? I know they grow from seeds as I have had many volunteers but I thought that I read on here they need to be planted soon.

Thanks for any info you can offer.

Bonny

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Comments (3)

albertar
16 years ago
If the seeds are black and shiny they are ripe, if they are still white they are not. Last year I harvested them and froze them, I sent some on to a member here but I don't think they germinated for her. What I would suggest now is harvest them when they are ripe and plant them right where you want them for next year. I have hundreds of volunteers in my yard now from just letting them stay where they dropped, and I've given many away. A few did come up from my WS efforts but no where near the amount of seeds that I started by WS.
Alberta
bonnys
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you Alberta. It sounds like bleeding heart is not a candidate for trading then. I will definately put the seeds where I want the plants to be.

Bonny
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Susan, the seed pods will vary a little with different types bleeding heart. My native d. formosa is packed with full seed pods right now - absolutely no mistaking those or when they are ripe. The ripeness of what most of us think of first when we hear bleeding heart is a little more subtile to the eye... Here you go - photo of dicentra spectabilis with ripe seed (borrowed, not my own) Here is a link that might be useful:
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Maggie - On my pink fernleaf, I wait until they turn black. If they happen to fall off the pod they are easy to spot on the ground because they are kind of shiny compared to the soil. Somewhere in my travels I've ready they do better if sown while fresh. It took me three or fours to finally get some to winter sow for me, I just wasn't having any luck. Now they babies have grown and I have them throughout the yard. I love them, they just bloom their heads off! I would try sowing them now and see if you have any success.
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This is a really interesting thread! I never thought to try to sow these. But here's the funny thing - just a few weeks back I was working in a friend's garden, and was struck by all the new bleeding heart plants she had. She gets reseeders everywhere. I don't think I've ever had a single one in my yard. So here I was just recently thinking about how they grow from seed, but never made the connection to ws them till I saw this thread. I guess I'm just not much of seed collector. I don't think in terms of collecting seed; I base my sowing decisions on what I see in catalogs, lol. I need to start changing that viewpoint! Interesting pixie lou- as I was reading your post, I thought, huh, I bet she doesn't get anything from the Valentine - and here you are, with sprouts ONLY from the Valentine! It will be interesting to see the bloom color on them! :) Dee
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The seed pods are thin little things that look sort of like a pea pod. Look about half way down this page: http://hortchat.com/info/bleeding-heart. Having said that, I have yet to notice the seed pods on my D. exemia, and it seeds itself happily every year; I'll look more closely next time I'm outside.
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beckilove
16 years ago
I opened one of my bleeding heart seed pods yesterday, and the seeds were black and shiny, but they had a white "tail" on them. Do I wait for that white thing to go away, or just plant them the way they are now? Thanks!
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