In my garden they seed around quite a bit.

Oh dear! Babs If your Dicentra is seeding then it is not D. 'Luxuriant'. It is sterile. I have grown it for many years and have never had it seed. Dicentra 'Luxuriant' patent.

I grow D. formosa and it will modestly reseed but the foliage is finer and greener. The flowers are pink with no hint of red.

A few years ago I had D. 'Aurora' and D. formosa in a greenhouse together. I noticed a seedling that popped up (in an unrelated pot) was different - the flowers were white with a pink tinge at the top of the flower. I planted it in the garden and it was a little beast that seeded like crazy. I think I have finally eradicated it.

Thanks Peren.all. I didn't read carefully enough and registered "fern leaf" without the variety name. Mine aren't Luxuriant.

Thanks! If the foliage persists I can give them some of my
prime real estate, versus the old fashioned kind where I have to plan other
things to fill in.

That patent document was very interesting. Red to dark pink
flowers will work very well, too. I have seen a few small fern leaf types in a favorite
nursery (whose names I have forgotten); but they were a pale wimpy pink or a lavender pink that I would
rather not use there.

I have a moisture-retentive bed under a pine tree where
hosta and ferns grow very well, but heuchera do not. I will give up on trying
heuchera there in the future. Only ones with some villosa background have
survived more than a year. Does that seem like the environment Luxuriant will like?

Apart from the lovely flowers, the persistent foliage is very attractive with a bluish cast to it. They will be happy in your moisture retentive bed either in full sun or partial shade. As an added bonus flowering begins very early and they flower non stop all season. All around wonderful!

Yay! I am getting quite excited about these now. The bluish foliage should go great with my hostas there, which are predominantly blue and gold. I had purple accents too, (the heuchera), but have to give up on those now.

I agree that these are a top-shelf plant. They bloom forever, have great foliage, and seem tolerant of a range of conditions. And deer don't eat them (I think?). I am keen to add many more of these this year to help out with trouble spots where nothing else seems to work. The only thing they don't like is being moved around or divided. I've had very limited success with that, but maybe it's just me.

I hope you love yours too Linnea!

You are right karin-mt deer leave them alone, yet another plus!

The roots of Dicentra are brittle and cannot dry out. If you dunk the roots in water then replant immediately I am sure you would have great success.

I ordered them last night, along with the white old
fashioned spectabilis I was originally ordering, from a nursery in Wisconsin
that sells bare root. I have had good luck with their plants, though I have
never ordered Dicentra before. Sounds like I should soak these a while before
planting.

Wow, I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for this one; sounds lovely! I'm on a mission to get more shade dwellers this year. I have and love the old fashioned spectabilis variety but one that keeps its foliage all season long is very appealing. Let us know how they do for you linnea!

Oh, and I don't know if it would work for you, but the 'Chocolate Chip' ajuga (sterile, so no seeding) has foliage with a dark color and purple flowers. Perhaps it could work for you as an accent in place of the heuchera? It's been a tough bugger for me, surviving in all sorts of places and providing a low key contrast to other plants.

I have Chocolate Chip in another bed. It is hard to see
against the bark mulch with the narrow leaves. I have Ajuga mahogany planted at
the perimeter of this bed. It was a substitute for a space between the bed and
a patio where I could not get grass to grow. That has more rounded leaves and
seems to be very vigorous. It is steadily marching into the bed by runners, though, which
has me slightly concerned. So far I am just pulling it out when it gets too
close and moving some elsewhere.

The color is terrific. But I need something with more height
to place in between the hosta and the gold heuchera (which seems much hardier).
Taller than the Ajuga (which is no more than 3 inches high when not blooming),
but less than 18”.

'Luxuriant' is magenta rather than true red like the spectabilis 'Valentine' and the foliage definitely persists as does the blooming. Love the fern leaf Dicentras. I have half a dozen or so different ones.

linnea, how long have you had ajuga 'Mahogany'? Has it survived winter for you? Last year I planted 'Black Scallop' which was so pretty but only one small patch survived the winter.

I originally saw Mahogany at theMissouri Botanic garden in their test home
landscape garden, where they rated it very highly. It had the density and close to the color
I was looking for.

This summer will be 2 years. Black Scallop is slightly darker. I needed a LOT of groundcover. My original research led me to believe that Mahogany was more hardy in my zone
than Black Scallop. Despite the fact that I often see Black Scallop in stores
locally, and not Mahogany. A nursery I go to downstate sold it, though.

I don’t think I have lost a single plant in my original
planting of about 8 sq feet. It spreads easily but is not hard to contain.

I decided to transplant those at the edges where I wanted
to contain it anyway, to a part of the yard where grass won’t grow. All I did
was rip them up and plant in a dip made by a trowel, and push some dirt around
the roots. Hardly well done. I did this in October of last year. Even though we
did not have good snow cover. I think almost all of them survived, except maybe
the smallest. This was an experiment. If I wanted better success I would grow
them on in pots first.

I think it is terrific!

I have certainly put it on my list. Not sure of the colour but glaucous foliage, not eaten by deer (my new nemesis) had me looking at nurseries. Dare not risk it now though - no water in the wood (I have a narrow planting window) so I am waiting to get a decent list to justify carriage costs (I am so mean). In the meantime, I save £2 coins (about $3) in a teapot towards my garden budget...which is filling up nicely - just about right for another birthday spree.

Thanks for the additional info on 'Mahogany' linnea. Good to know it's more hardy than 'Black Scallop'

I'm going to the Morton Arboretum plant sale this weekend, I've never been but have heard they have a good selection. Wonder if they will have 'Luxuriant'?

Oh, I didn't know they had one! I go there fairly often. But I usually don't go to the visitor center, so would not have seen signs.

Ditto, I actually found out last year about it after the fact and then set up an event in my calendar to email me at the beginning of April this year to remind me to find out when it is!

Let me know what it's like if you go. I doubt I will be able to go myself.

I did go on Sunday to the Morton Arboretum plant sale. I think it was a mistake to go on the last day as they didn't have as much variety. Many things I could have found at a big box store or a basic nursery. But I did get a couple things I am excited about: 'Sun King' aralia, 'Starlet' epimedium and 'Crimson Fans' mukdenia, I also got a couple basics - some hostas, etc. to support the arboretum (and my plant addiction!). I might do it again but I would definitely try to get there as soon as possible.

Thanks for the update. I did not feel up to much of anything on Sunday, just a little yard work, where it was not too soggy. Transplanting ajuga into wet ground. I have a lot of pain days due to recent knee surgery.

I bought a Crimson Fans mukdenia last summer! It never had the fall color I was hoping for, but maybe that was because it was new. But still, it survived the winter in a bed where a lot died (lack of snow cover, I believe, or too much rain) . It was up earlier than almost anything else, and looks great.

Great to know that the mukdenia will survive in our neck of the woods!

Hope you have a speedy and complete recovery from the knee surgery.

Thanks! It was torn cartilage. Recovery is slower than I had thought, but I think my expectations were out of line.

The plants arrived today, as part of a much larger
order. They came rolled up in brown paper. I can’t see the whole of each plant,
but I can see they have loads of buds! (I wonder if I need to cut them off? That would be hard. ) Tomorrow
will be a planting marathon. It will be interesting to see how I do, when I can’t
kneel.

How exciting! And dangerous for your knee... If it gets to be too much, perhaps you can just pot them up until you are better recovered.

Is luxuriant bleeding heart suited for sun or shade?

Partial shade is generally best. I have grown them in full sun in moisture retentive soil.

can they do well in full shade?

Dappled shade would be okay but not deep shade. You want them to flower.