Old fashioned bleeding hearts, Dicentra spectabiliswhat you haveÂgoes dormant in summer, so thatÂs probably at least part of the problem youÂre having, but they do prefer shade or mostly shade, so if itÂs in mostly sun, or very much hot midday sun, itÂll probably do better if you move it. Do you have a picture of it now? If itÂs mostly dormant alreadyÂpretty yellow lookingÂyou might want to wait till right after itÂs done blooming next spring. If it still doesnÂt look too bad, you could move it now, but then expect it to completely yellow and "go away" for the rest of the summer. May or may not get a little bit of foliage in fall, but probably not. If you move it now, water it in very well after transplanting it, and then just water it "normally" for the rest of the summerÂthat means water the same as you would for anything else planted in the area. If you move it now, be sure you mark where itÂs planted so you donÂt accidentally dig into it after itÂs dormantÂand donÂt freak out when it immediately yellows and looks like itÂs dying! Bleeding hearts are amazingly resilient things, and itÂll be back next springÂpossibly TOO early, and the foliage and/or buds or flowers could freeze if we get a hard freeze after it puts in itÂs appearance (covering works in all but the most extreme cold!) There isnÂt a lot of COLOR for planting in shade, but there definitely are blooming things you can use. I donÂt have a lot of time right now for detailed info, but a few of them are: Thalictrum, Aruncus/goatsbeard, Bergenia, Primula/primrosesÂlots of different types (some donÂt like heat very much!), Heuchera/coral bellsÂboth the ones with green leaves and "red" flowers and the ones with the beautifully colored foliage, Lamium (groundcover), saxifrage, Lewisia (mine are in too much sun!), GeraniumsÂthe perennial onesÂcranesbill, Digitalis/foxgloveÂcommon ones are biennial/short lived, most of the Campanulas can go with just a couple hours direct sun, same with most of the columbine, forget-me-nots, some lilies (oriental and a few others), Polemonium/JacobÂs ladder, Tiarella, Trollius, Brunnera/false forget-me-not. And then thereÂs a wonderful variety of colorful foliage and the different foliage sizes, textures, and heights of HostasÂthey bloom, but mostly theyÂre grown for the great foliage. And ferns, while they donÂt bloom, can add a wonderful dimension to shade gardens. I just scrolled thru a couple of my albums, and here are some of the things on the north side of my (2-story) house. Mid summer they get a little bit of very early morning and very late afternoon direct sun. If you want to know what something is, click on the picture and youÂll be able to see the captionÂI think I only linked ones that are captioned! If you have any questions, let me know! Skybird

I do not know the answer to your question but I did disagree with your assumption "shade plants all need....soil". I have rather good soil due to years of oak leaves decaying. My mother in law has clay or sandy soil. I got my fern leaf bleeding hearts from her. They grow like weeds for her, self sowing all over the place. Mine have NEVER come up from seed they self sow and when I divide them, only about half survive. I water regularly, she is too frugal to ever water. It is quite possible we are over mothering this particular plant. My largest most vigerous plant is in a front bed near the house that gets more sun and less water than most of my plants. In fact I recently mulched that bed and the bleeding heart does not look happy about it.

I would insulate the steam line to within about 1/2 inch of the PVC, then put some sheet metal in the gap touching the insulation but not the water pipe. It might be overkill, but it would take a decent amount of analysis optimize this (and there are probably so many unknowns a precise answer is not going to happen, like how tightly sealed the cavity is).

I've never repaired or maintained a system like that but here's my thoughts. A. I would alow system to cool down before removing the screw,you risk injury from steam. B. That screw head look's exactly like self drilling used in metal wall studs. Odds are the screw has become rusty which mean's it might snap instead of backing out. At best it might screw out but,it's unlikly to reseal if put back in.. Before loosening screw,I'd check threads on another valve then have a mating tap pluse the next larger tap and drill bit as well as both valve sizes on hand.