Bleeding Heart Die-off
One of my most anticipated spring arrivals are bleeding hearts. But over the last few years I have witnessed them dying off. It's always the same: the first three years or so they do great - plenty of flowers atop a full, bushy plant that lasts until early July. But then the year after that a more stunted version of the plant surfaces. Nothing obviously wrong with it, but it's clearly in decline. The photo below shows the one vigorous speciman I have left in the front yard. About three feet away from this one is another that is less than half the size and looks like it will get one strand of flowers (that are anemic looking buds currently), although the foliage looks perfectly fine. Then in the fifth or sixth year after planting it totally fails to come up in spring at all. I have four gaps where they used to be. At first I naturally assumed there was some type of disease, that then slowly spread from one plant to the next. But now I suspect it's a lifespan thing - they only live that long, which is why the oldest ones I planted died first, and they were followed eventually by the ones planted the year after that, and so on. Does anyone know the typical lifespan of bleeding hearts? Thanks.
