UKH

We're lucky in Britain to have the lion's share of the world's bluebells. They're out all over the place in hedgerows, on hillsides and in woodlands. I think round here in Lancashire they're not quite at peak time (another week or two, perhaps?). I usually make a point of going to particular places where I know the displays will be good. Back in the days of the first lockdown, when we were limited to walking from home, I was lucky enough to have a footpath nearby through woodland. Normally, it would have been quite popular but I never saw anyone about. Just me and acres of bluebells in the warm May sunshine.

I planted loads earlier this year. They are just starting to come out. 

Of course I had to make a fool of myself by thinking I was planting hyacinths at the time!  Never did latin at school.

We have just moved house, and there is a cracking display of bluebells in the new garden 😊 The whole house and garden need a huge amount of work and it quite daunting, so to have a lovely bluebell display is such a nice treat!

But they were probably not the wild ones we get in the UK - yours were probably cultivated.  There is a difference and there is concern that the wild ones will be gradually take on more characteristics of the cultivated ones.

Bulbs I presume? I've collected the seed heads of wild bluebells a few times and scattered the seeds about but nothing's ever come up. I read somewhere it's 5 to 7 years seed to flower? Wild garlic on the other hand runs rife from the word go.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17597489

Sadly most garden bluebells (and those available to buy) are of the more aggressive 'Spanish Bluebell' type - they have flowers all around the stem rather than just drooping on one side and have little or no scent. 

These introduced non-natives are gradually hybridising with our native species, leading to contamination of the genetic identity of the wild plants. 

The council gave us the bulbs to plant in our local woodland nature reserve along with daffs and snowdrops.

Let's hope someone at the council knows their wildflowers!

If i wanted to buy native bluebell how would i know ive got the real mcoy,just looked some up and vary from £3.49 to £38 quid.

I think they make an effort to keep to native varieties.

Also an honourable mention to the cherry blossom currently floating down past me on the springs breeze.

Such a great relief to have plenty of rain this spring.

You’d know because you winced as you entered your card details!

My bluebell story dates back some decades when I was engaged in surveying for an orienteering map in a lovely open deciduous wood not so far from Rowsley in the Peak. I was standing still and drawing up a compass traverse I’d just carried out. It was a perfect sunny, warm and silent spring day. But not totally silent. What was that very strange gentle crackly sort of sound I could just hear? Blow me down if it wasn’t bluebell flowers opening up as the sun’s rays hit them. Magical moment.

Are you talking Scottish bluebells (the real ones) or English bluebells? 

I think we have patch of Spanish bluebells in the front garden. I'm ready to haul them out of the ground when I'm certain. 

We have an outdoor poster of a bluebell wood on our back garden wall.

Bluebell woods are possibly one of the most spectacular bits of nature that you can easily view in the UK.

I think there was some debate on here (last year?) about what 'bluebells' actually are. Whatever, I've never heard them described as 'English'. If by 'Scottish' you mean what I call the harebell then that's a much later (late summer) flowering plant and something I'd associate with meadows and verges rather than woodland.

They're quite easy to tell from British bluebells - and a lot harder to get rid of.

I can't ever recall hearing the flowers, Rog but a few days ago I was looking into a patch of woodland where the bluebells were outnumbered somewhat by wild garlic so I had the pungent odour to add to the visual display. I sometimes eat the garlic leaves as well but not when they're flowering as by then they're pretty tough. No dodgy substances required!

Wild garlic flowers are nice to eat, too; little nuggets of fiery garlic.

Feast of bluebells and wild garlic on Purbeck today. Absolutely stunning displays of wild garlic, carpeting woodland all over. Absolutely glorious day, with clear air after yesterday's rain.

Even managed a sneaky dip in a pool formed by a tree fallen across a stream... nice cool off after the warm sunny day. Fortunately, despite the crowds about on the main drags  that little path was deserted, and I paddled around a few corners first...

Bluebells (Spanish or English) belong to the genus Hyacinthoides, which is part of the Asparagus family, or Asparagaceae. The common harebell is unrelated, belonging to the genus Campanula (which includes wayside plants like Nettle Leaved Bellflower as well as many garden plants with blue bell-shaped flowers) and the genus is part of the Campanula family, or Campanulaceae.

Hope that’s clear!

From a walk this morning.

Those quiet moments when mapping reveal so much.  I had bittersweet memories of bluebells - peak mapping season, I would get out after work with the light evenings but you knew that once the bluebells were over the bracken would take over and some areas (looking at you Highgate Common) would be unmappable come the end of May.

Lovely. The 'only' bluebells I saw yesterday were scattered along hedgerows rather than large expanses. It was very quiet out in the fields and I even had to take my jumper off it was that warm. The cows were all out munching real grass. Now it's persisting down outside!

Without the rain there’d be no flowers or grass for cows to eat.

You a mapper too? I drew over a dozen in my days with Derwent Valley Orienteers. I think that’s what wrecked my eyesight!

The milder young leaves are also good. Get some decent Cumberland sausage such as the Woodall's stuff from west Cumbria, brown the outside then cut into bite sized chunks. Wrap each chunk in a ramson leaf then braise in cider. Serve with mountains of buttery mashed potato with the remaining garlicky cidery juices poured over.

Recognise the name - I did a fair bit of surveying, but others wielded the pen. Incredibly intense mental activity.

Times have changed.  I put old maps up on Mastodon and Twitter, and one created a bit of interest - so much that somebody drew a new map of the area in a day from Lidar, Strava and aerial photography.

OT, but have you (and Rog) come across Christopher Goddard's books?  If not, I think you might like them.  eg: https://christophergoddard.net/product/south-yorkshire-moors/

Bluebells nearly gone, still a bit left though...

That seems early? I think they're just coming into peak condition round here. Looking at photos from last year I was walking through a pretty good display in a wooded Bowland gill on May 22nd. There, to my eyes at least, they were slightly over the hill although no seed heads were visible yet.

Looking at pics from the same spot last year, I'd thought the peak was last weekend in April, maybe they're a bit earlier in these parts?

I used to put photos up on Geograph. Here's one I took by the River Brock which was May 10th, 2014. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3974322

The Brock is one of the best places for bluebells locally and there are good paths allowing access along lengthy stretches of it. I think they were particularly good that year. It's good in autumn too when the trees are changing.

Looking back at some of mine I think you're right but they seem to be a bit later this year.  Here's a pic from late April 2020 just South of Sheffield (not quite in the Peak District).  I was there again yesterday, though I didn't take a photo. The bluebells are at about the same stage but the ground is a lot wetter.

Nice pic!

This is from 23rd April last year. Because it was sunny then but very overcast yesterday (my pic higher up) it does bias it a bit to make last years pictures look bluer and therefore bluebell-ier. I'm more South than you this was taken in a park in London, so that may account for a week or two here versus Lancs

(I purposefully don't tweak the colours etc or apply filters, to try to get closer to what see if how it looked to the eye, not some fake Instagram-filter super-saturated look. That said... it's a phone pic so it might have HDR'd and colour "balanced" some without asking, but that pic is just how it looked to the eye)

Based on this image:

https://gardening.which.co.uk/hc/article_attachments/360000153865/A7HM4X---...

I would guess the ones in my back garden are all Spanish ones.

They do look very nice however. I would be sad to get rid of them, so rightly or wrongly, I suspect they will remain there.

I have reported this. Nigel Farage should come round and stamp on them within the next 24 hours

To follow up..  a few pics from a squelchy muddy run around the same woods this morning.  I think they're just past their peak now, though there's no sign of any going to seed yet.

It could be my memory playing tricks on me, but I don't think they were still so vibrant when the wild garlic was flowering the last few times.  The way the scent of the bluebells gave way to the smell of garlic heading down to the gently burbling stream with the bird song and all - wow, quite special.

Not for free he won't.  Apparently it costs £75 to get him to read out your message on 'Cameo', no idea what he charges for an in-person performance of xenophobic contemporary dance. 
(Which, come to think of it, sounds ironically similar to Flamenco.)

I saw quite a few today and although the flowers look 'peak' some of the leaves are beginning to droop. I passed a church where a lone bagpiper was playing a lament for someone's funeral. It was quite moving, reminding me of my father's funeral almost thirty years ago. The sun came out and the mist rolled away from the moors. This and the bluebells made me think how ephemeral we all are. We have our limited time and then time claims us back. By the canal, a pair of swans have built a nest right on the towpath. New life. Make the best of it while you can.

Please leave my fig tree out if it

Most garden ones are - I have loads of Spanish ones in my garden that were planted by my father before I bought the house. They are deep rooted/bulbed and removal would entail digging out several apple trees, two mature Holly's and a maple. 

If I was the only local contaminant I might do it but around 10% of gardens here have Spanish BB so I feel the environmental harm removing the trees far outweighs the (sadly now probably unpreventable) problems associated with the introduced BBs. The rest of the garden is managed as sustainability as possible - lots of flowering herbs, minimal mowing, nest sites, bug hotels etc. 

Still, the best practice is to avoid planting any more (although planting native BBs isn't without problems as there is a thriving black market in bulbs stolen from ancient woodlands). 

The one white bluebell on the riverbank from when we moved in has spread and I can find 5 of them in the orchards this year.  It has the shape characteristic to English bluebells.  If we were in drought I’d be feeding one of them water dosed with yellow food due to fake a scientific mystery…

Should white bluebells be 'whitebells'? They do crop up in various places. I guess they're just an albino mutation rather than a different species.

Photos from a trip today though a 2,000+ year old woodland in County Durham.  The scent of the bluebells was amazing, and it’s the first time I’ve seen woodland sorrel flowering with pink petals.

Shame about some of the other parts of the walk, like…

Excellent, and that sorrel is amazing, never seen it myself either. If it wasn’t so unusual/rare, would make a fantastic garnish to a salad. 

I found a solitary bluebell in my garden today, and it's an English one! It must have seeded naturally, we didn't plant it and it's not appeared before. I'm going to take great care of it. No sign of any nasty immigrant ones.

Been a bitter spring here in Angus, wind between N and E for weeks, bluebells just come out in the last week. In a local wood yesterday -

I've just got back from Argyll where it's been warm enough to get the midges back out and about. The bluebells along the A82 by Inverary were superb. Even at 50 mph.

I saw some pink bluebells the other day. I had no idea there was a pink variety.

On  the roadside outside our house there are blue, pink and white bells all mixed up together. I think their promiscuous behaviour produces the different shades.

We have pink near us too. I have seen them in a few places, but I think they are pretty unusual 

I fight a constant battle with bluebells in my garden. They’re invasive. They’re only allowed in the shady bed on the north side of the house, or on the grass verge outside, otherwise they’d be everywhere.

I don't think I'd have a problem with having bluebells everywhere in my garden. I quite like the sound of it in fact!

Me too. Especially as they are very short lived. Just embrace the few weeks of lovely smell and a blue carpet 🙂

There are many different approaches to gardening. Mine does not involve allowing nature to make the decisions, though that does seem to be getting more popular judging by TV garden programmes. Bluebells are indeed lovely, but I have over 200 different species in my garden, and they’re all lovely. But nothing can be allowed to become that dominant. After they’ve finished flowering bluebells really, in my opinion, are a mess. There are acres of them in nearby woods so I don’t need them in my relatively small patch.

I found some under the hedge today.  I’m starting to think a previous resident was a bit careless with the mutating serum.  

They are, yes. As much as I love their brief beauty (and I certainly do), once they're done, their leaves wither away.

And they poison the ground, too, as they jealously guard their habitat.

Bluebell hate speech designed to dog whistle OCD gardeners! They have cleverly evolved to overcome their competitors. I shall report you as a hyacanthropist or whatever

Are you sure it's not a 3-cornered garlic (stinking onion)?

I initially thought similar, but then checked and the flowers are quite a bit different. 

A marsh orchid from Sunday. Lovely colours. 

And some late season bluebells catching the light, and greater stichwort 

Yup.  The white ones are in amongst blue ones.  I’m going to try and get some seeds to germinate from these and the pink ones.

Walking round Abbeystead yesterday there are still lots of bluebells about but they're definitely on the wane. Just now it seems to be full tilt for the hawthorns. The smell was very strong at times.

Myself and others ‘think’ that there has been more hawthorn blossom than average. Not a clue if this is true or not. I’ve mixed feelings: I used to suffer incredibly bad hayfever (triggering asthma) and the smell of the blossom triggers bad memories. Not effected by it these days. 

At Martin Mere they have let parts of the collection (rare birds etc) go wild. These buttercups would have been mowed until a few years ago. Stunning at the moment, loads of butterflies in and around them, including wall butterflies which are great. They just cut a bendy path to wall through them.  They’ve left quite a bit of the collection area to go wild and it’s now very good habitat, loads of warblers and small stuff. 

Bluebells still out nicely in parts of the Lakes - Duddon valley, won't be long before the bracken hides them though.

Just went for a walk in the Dales and the bluebells in the outgoing lane were all Spanish whereas on the return lane they were native.

How do you tell the difference, not sure I'd notice whilst driving past

I'm not sure about when driving but walking it's pretty obvious. It's the hybrids that can be tricky. Spanish are basically bigger plant and flowers, more upright and a little paler in colour. Once you see them both in short order you can tell they're not the same thing.

Still going strong in the meadows of upper Teesdale.

Eldon Hill in the Peak District on Wednesday last week 

Example pics attached. Apologies the Spanish bluebell pic is poor, it's actually a detail cropped from a photo of something else (Eldon Hole) and wasn't the subject of my photo

I can't zoom in enough but I've a feeling those Eldon Hole flowers may be bugles? I've been seeing lots of them about - large areas in Upper Wharfedale yesterday.

Hmm...   the Eldon "Bluebells"...   it's a pretty terrible pic to be fair
Not sure... looking at https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/bugle  those look spikier and more upright and darker stemmed, but mine are more downwards trumpety? Here's about as far as I can zoom from the original before it starts pixilating

happy to learn something, if these aren't bluebells?

I've just looked at pics of the two together and I'm not sure. The shape of the flower head looks like bugle but can't resolve enough to see the individual flowers or the leaves. Is Eldon quite remote? I wonder where the nearest source for Spanish would be. Did most of my caving in the Dales and never made it there.

Some are still in flower, this was near the A6 between Shap and Kendal earlier today 

Not sure. If Spanish bluebells probably would have needed "help" from humans. It's a limestone hill, grazing land dry stone walls etc a copse not too far away so the location is more plausible than say: the entrance surround for Gaping Gill (GG was first caving trip, me and a daft mate decided to get hold a load of rope and give Dihedral a go,  so I have a fond place in my heart for GG!), but I'm wondering if Eldon has Bugles now you've seen seeds of doubt in my mind, I'm not likely to be back in next 2 months though. May be back later and will look for the plants to confirm.