Bluebell season

[Nick Armstrong]

The Oxfordshire bluebells are even more spectacular now than they were almost 3 weeks ago when I started this thread.

I took these this morning in woods near Christmas Common... a carpet of flowers, as far as the eye could see in some directions.

[greenilex]

There is something extraordinary about the new green and the fading lilac-blue together in those photographs. The resonances must be complementary in some way?

[DracoM]

Great fields of wild garlic in our woods hereabouts.

[Nick Armstrong]

There is something extraordinary about the new green and the fading lilac-blue together in those photographs. The resonances must be complementary in some way?

I agree - something harmonious which is pretty intoxicating. The lilac-blue is interesting in itself, as it takes on that faded (and in the direct sun, almost snowy) hue, whereas seen close up the purple-blue isn't faded at all - I think it's because they are quite glossy flowers and reflect the light en masse in that paler way

[gurnemanz]

I seem to have committed the unwitting treachery of having Spanish bluebells - albeit a smallish clump. They look very attractive in there with wallflowers and forget-me-nots in the front garden. Though I would prefer the native variety, I'm afraid don't feel strongly enough to dig them out.

[greenilex]

American bluebells are quite different again. Maybe Marthe has them?

They also have things called "bidens" which are a bit like dandelions, I believe.

[umslopogaas]

We have two species of Bidens in the UK. They are not related to bluebells, they are in the family Compositae and look a bit like small yellow dandelions on stalks.

[marthe]

American bluebells are quite different again. Maybe Marthe has them?

They also have things called "bidens" which are a bit like dandelions, I believe.

Doversoul alerted me to this. We don't have English Wood Hyacinths (Hyancinthoides non-scripta) but do have something similar,though taller, called Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica). I have bought bulbs that were supposed to be H. non-scripta but somehow didn't pass muster with the HH who declared them to be too tall. I remember the loveliness of Bluebell woods from my time in England. In the US, there is also the Virginia Bluebell (Mertensia virginica)but it is a different sort of plant growing from roots rather than bulbs. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/differe...ths-91815.html. The HH remembers masses of Bluebells from a wood near his boyhood home. It is called Borsdane Wood in Hindley near Wigan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borsdane_Wood

Bidens is a rather weedy composite that is sold in garden centres as filler for hanging baskets and window boxes. It looks a bit like a small Coreopsis.

I hope all is well on the R3 Forum. I miss checking in from time to time but have been up to my eyeballs with taking care of family business. I'm grateful that Doversoul passed this thread on to me. The HH and I will be in the Green and Pleasant in early June for a family wedding up north and then to meet up with friends in Nottingham to memorialise a dear friend who recently passed away.

[Keraulophone]

Pleased to find our drooping native species with cream anthers in my small patch of Cornwall.

[DracoM]

Yes, all wonderfully pretty - in the wild.
But, trust me, if they get into your garden, you'll need a mini-JCB to get them out.

[french frank]

Yes, all wonderfully pretty - in the wild.
But, trust me, if they get into your garden, you'll need a mini-JCB to get them out.

If you let them take over. I have a colony and they haven't swamped my small back garden yet.

For those who don't mind having the hispanica variety, all well and good for you. But your neighbours who cultivate their native bluebells may curse - unless they have some way of keeping all the pollinating insects off them.

[french frank]

I have a colony and they haven't swamped my small back garden yet.

For those who don't mind having the hispanica variety, all well and good for you. But your neighbours who cultivate their native bluebells may curse - unless they have some way of keeping all the pollinating insects off them.

Bah! - a lovely day for gardening yesterday and my bluebell colony has now been grubbed up and thrown away, to make room for primroses and violets.

One clump was completely 'gone' - in every respect: thick stem with upright growth, not arching; bells short, and wide at the mouth; hanging off all round the stem instead of one side only; broad leaves; and anthers (the pollen bits are greenish):



Still, after 7 or 8 years they did well to last as long as they did next door to my neighbour's hispanica. Why dig them up? I don't find 'ordinary bluebells' appealing, and they are invasive.

[Serial_Apologist]

Why dig them up? I don't find 'ordinary bluebells' appealing, and they are invasive.

They are, but to me there's nothing comparable in every positive spring-welcoming sense to the shimmering blue of bluebells en masse, au nature in woodland shade, just after the overhanging tree canopy has come into full leaf.

[teamsaint]

Its that time of year,

Just now, up in Bluebell Wood.

[Bryn]

The first across the road from my above appeared a fortnight ago. It took several days for others to join it. Now it's a veritable profusion. I must get down to the Plantation Cove under cliff woodland soon, before the swathes there die back.