I lost 2 this year, they appear to have rotted away.

Aha -- I'm in Saskatchewan too. I think you might be right. I poked around a bit and it seems like the core of the plant is brown and soft. Who would have thought things could rot in this dry climate!

I'm from Northern Ontario and also am baffled over my bleeding heart not coming up this year - the only possible cause I can think of is the unusually late winter and little or no snow in December and January we've had - could it be winter kill?

Hi all

I lost pink bleeding hearts that were over 25 years old. They rotted away. The white bleeding hearts in the raised bed in the front of the house are blooming so I am guessing an excess of moisture (although how that happened with no snow, I don't know!) and putting a whole leaf mulch on top did them and tons of my other perennials in. About the only things that survived were my ostrich ferns (they grow like weeds) and a couple of cimifugas. My bergenias are barely alive. I am almost back to square one in my perennial garden... rather discouraging...

Danni

Danni, that is so sad.

The good news is that there are some small bleeding heart stems poking up. Nothing like in past years. But I guess some small part of the root survived. So I'm hopeful that it will eventually come back. I also mulched heavily last year. I wonder if that was the problem.

I usually mulch my big bleeding heart with 4-6 " of straw and it's never hurt it. It's possible that too much moisture at the wrong time is the culprit. Or maybe leaves pack down too tightly? I don't have much experience at using leaves for mulch.
Connie