The species contains isoquinoline, a toxic alkaloid known to be fatal to cattle. It frequently goes dormant for the summer after flowering, emerging and flowering again in autumn. There are two tiny, pointed sepals behind the petals. The two inner petals are perpendicular to the outer petals and connected at the tip. The two outer petals form a pouch at the base and curve outwards at the tips. The four petals are attached at the base. The flowers are pink, red, or white and heart-shaped and bloom in clusters of 5 to 15 at the top of leafless, fleshy stems above the leaves from mid-spring to autumn, with peak flowering in spring. Its leaves are three to four times divided and fern-like, growing from a brittle rhizome at the base of the plant. Pacific bleeding-heart is a perennial herbaceous plant. Good companions for wild bleeding heart are sedges, trilliums, merrybells, Bloodroot, ferns, false solomon's seal, wild ginger and twin leaf.Dicentra formosa ( western, wild or Pacific bleeding heart) is a flowering plant with fern-like leaves and an inflorescence of drooping pink, purple, yellow or cream flowers native to the Pacific Coast of North America. It will happily self sow under the right conditions. Then plant the seeds immidiatly and leave them outside over the winter they will germinate in the spring after it warms up. The seed does have eliasomes, white fleshy appendages, that ants love so if you want to grow the plants from seed you need to get the seed before the ants carry them off. Wild Bleeding Heart can be propagated by divison or by seed.

In dryer soils you may find that it does not bloom for as long as it would under moister soil conditions.

You see it quite often on slopes so it works great in rock gardens. It prefers a moist soil high in organic matter but can grow in moist rocky soils. The plant has a mounded habit and can get quite bushy. Wild Bleeding Heart has medium green ferny leaves. Wild Bleeding Heart adds much needed color to your woodland garden. Then flowered again late August into October. In 2015, we had plants that started flowering in late May through June into July. It flowers prolifically for a long period of time. Then we can look at form, colors and textures.This lovely plant with flowers that are heart shaped and rosy pink maybe one you should look at. When designing a woodland garden we first want to make our selves a list of what plants will grow on our site.

Wild bleeding heart presque isle