How's your vole population? They took out a HUGE (4 ft diameter) pink bleeding heart that I have had for almost 20 years. Must have built their condos right under it...and invited all the cousins to join them. grrrrr.

Hmmm....now that I didn't think of. I am unaware of having a vole problem. What do they do eat the roots or just dig under them? And why would they bother the pink ones and not the white ones? I don't see any tunnels anywhere.

I have a lot of voles on my property, and they have eaten every crocus bulb and tulip bulb I ever planted. Fortunately they either haven't discovered my bleeding heart plants or else they don't like the variety I have (not sure what that variety is). My bleeding hearts are coming up just fine, but I'm sorry they decided to snack on yours, Prairiemoon.

I usually test for voles by pushing down on the soil in the area I am concerned about. If there are vole tunnels, the soil will collapse down into them when I push.

We have two kinds of voles, one that mostly tunnels through the grass or other dense plants right at the soil surface, though they may den or do some feeding underground. The other species is usually right under the surface a couple of inches. I found one turning manure into the veggie bed a few days ago, just flipped him out onto the surface when I flipped the fork of soil.

I'm confused, because I read a list of plants that are considered poisonous that voles avoid and Bleeding Heart was on the list along with Aconitum, Hellebore, etc.

Spedigrees, I still seem to have a lot of crocus bulbs left too. A few have gone missing, but not all that noticeable. Thanks for the commiseration, I'm sorry about all your crocus and tulip bulbs missing too. :-)

Babs, I'll try testing for tunnels in the area where my bleeding hearts were, thanks. I did see what I thought might be a vole last year, just scampering across my bottom front step. It was small and gray and looked like it was blind. Not really mouse like. I stood there for a minute trying to decide what to do - I knew it was trouble, but I just couldn't bring myself to kill it, assuming I could have caught it. If there is one, I suppose there is more than one.

I know there is a neighborhood cat that wanders the neighborhood and uses my back fence as a pathway, but, I imagine he's well fed at home and not all that interested in these critters. [g]

The ones that look like they are blind are moles. Voles look more like gerbils. Moles don’t eat plants, but their tunnels can damage plant roots by exposing them to air.

My cats (RIP kitties) used to bring me dead voles as presents on a regular basis. They were the most plentiful offering on my front porch, and there is a myriad of tunnels just under the grass, so I know that voles here are legion. Despite their exceptional hunting skills, cats never made a dent in the vole population. We have plenty of moles as well, judging from the piles of mounded earth they dig up to aerate their tunnels.

It's always possible, Prairiemoon, that your bleeding heart fell victim to something other than rodents. Whatever got it, it's a shame.

I was out pruning yesterday, because now that the shrubs are leafing out, I see a lot of dead branches. The gray dogwood, I have, which I consider a bulletproof shrub, has suddenly decided to lose some major branches. One was broken from the heavy snow we had, but the others seem excessive. I can't remember ever having to prune off dead branches before.

The other shrub with dead branches is a Clethra 'Sherry Sue'. It looks like I'm going to have to remove half the shrub. So it got me wondering why all of a sudden I'm having this problem and I wonder if it could be connected to the Bleeding Heart? Is it possible that voles have chewed the roots on these shrubs too?

I did go into the area where my bleeding heart used to be, and walked around to see if there was any give in the soil, but nothing. I also saw what looked a little like holes in the grass near this area. But - in the past, when I've seen similar holes, it always looks like what I see when the squirrels are digging looking for nuts. I'm going to try to take a photo this morning and post it.

I don’t know if you have voles or not, but mine haven’t bothered Clethra. However, I have had issues with hardiness of Clethra with Southern provenance which most likely isn’t an issue for you since you are warmer. I also don’t know the origin of Sherry Sue.

My dogwoods on the other hand are routinely killed by voles eating their roots, including shrubby ones like gray and red-twigged dogwoods and Cornus alternifolia (though some sources have a different genus on pagoda dogwood now.)

Some years ago, the vole and chipmunk population was out of control here--after both cats died. I lost many perennials because the roots had been eaten. I had to resort to a pest exterminator, a local guy who can take care of anything. He really knows his stuff. He had to make numerous visits to lower the population but it worked. He used mouse traps and rat traps. The problem areas were by my stone walls which are underground condos for critters.

Prairiemoon, I bought two Dicentra ‘Luxuriant’ and let them stay in the pots waaaaaaay too long last year. Keep watering them daily and actually rotted the crown. I put them both in the ground, where one showed some feeble signs of life before winter. Now they are both putting out new shoots, although not as many as they should have. I am surprised they survived, but thought I’d let you know. sounds like you have a mystery on your hands with no clear cut answers!

Babs - Some of the dead branches on the Clethra, are coming back, so I'm delaying pruning to see how much I will get. The Sherry Sue, I believe is not as hardy as other varieties. I bought it in CT, and my 'Hummingbird' is without an issue. As for the gray dogwood, well, there is a LOT of it. [g]. It really suckers more than any shrub I've ever grown. I am removing some of the outer growth at times to keep it in control. It was the largest oldest growth that was affected and I am considering next winter, cutting out all of the older growth and allowing the suckers to fight it out. If a critter is eating the roots, I just wish they would eat the roots of the outer edge of the patch. Now that would be convenient. [g]

Ginny - I was thinking of trying some mouse traps along the foundation line which I believe they travel when above ground. At least to see if I catch anything that would solve the mystery. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Deanna - I am not seeing any evidence of the missing bleeding hearts at all, but sure, maybe some of them will come back next season. The white bleeding heart is still looking good, so there's that. I do have the dicentra exima too and those have not been effected either. I was at the nursery today and I saw a 'Valentine' bleeding heart and just had to bring it home. It was just so appealing with the darker rose color and the dark stems and leaves. I'm going to plant it somewhere surrounded by plants that are not favored food of the critters - Hellebores, epimedium, ajuga. And close to my backdoor, in case, these critters are less likely to be active in a well traveled area. Or maybe a hybrid might be less attractive too. Fingers crossed. It is a mystery, but one that I'm sure will sort itself out sooner or later.

In the meantime, I am planning on adding to my collection of epimedium, which are from China and Japan and seem to be of little interest to any of the critters that are out there. [g]