It's my understanding that lime added to the soil will promote flowers--without it you will get only foliage. The article did not specify a pH level to accomplish this. My soil tests very acidic, about 4.5 so I added a generous amount of powdered lime and it seemed to work.

I put these in a few places around the property maybe 5 or 6 years ago--all shady, all alkaline soil. One clump gets bigger every year and always blooms. The others gradually diminish and bloomed only the first year after planting or maybe once since. I don't know the answer.

how strange. do oak forests usually have acidic soil? they grow in oak forests here. OR, we have alkaline soil anyway! my yard is definitely alkaline. they seem to be yellowish when they bloom, yet in the woods they have a pink tinge.

It might be a lack of phosphorous.

Shapiro,
Can I ask what they looked like when they came up? I tried growing some from seed last year and after no success I threw the seeds into the garden and hoped for the best. Now I see something is coming up in the spot where I think I threw the seeds, I'm wondering if this could be them? Mine look sort of like a bleeding heart leave except less pointed.

The foliage certainly looks like bleeding heart.

fairy_toadmother,

The Dicentra we have in OR is D. formosa. 'Dutchman's Breeches' is D. cucullaria. Most Dicentra like acid soil; but D. cucullaria is from the Eastern Seaboard and the Midwest, where there is a tendency to clay soils which tend to be sweeter than forest soils.

as i was walking along a bike path here in clay soil central ohio, i saw a huge stand of dutchman's breeches about 3 weeks ago. it was in a sunny, high canopy forest. i have some pitiful specimens of my own, so it was a great treat for me to see them so successful and thriving!

Is anyone interested in exchanging plants (or seed) of D. cucullaria for D. formosa? [Pacific Northwest Bleeding Heart for Dutchman's Breeches]