Here in England writing about bluebells can mean only one thing. A favourite woodland flower,
Hyacinthoides non-scriptus, whose sweetly scented blue flowers are currently blooming across wide areas of my local woodland, hedgerows and even open grassland. 12-18in / 30-45cm stems arise from tightly packed rosettes of thin, grassy leaves, upright at first, then, as the flowers progressively open to one side of the stem, arching under the weight.
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| Hyacinthoides non-scriptus beginning to open and still fairly upright |
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| Hyacinthoides non-scriptus more fully opened, the weight of the bells arching the stem. |
Their great feature is the sheets of blue that can carpet undisturbed areas. Under the slowly emerging canopy of deciduous woodland or, as is common in the moister air of South West England, in more open locations and hedgerows they really are a spectacular sight. Thankfully the depredations of bulb collectors have been made illegal and sights like this are still visible throughout the country.
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| Massed bluebells in a local hedgerow |
For all their beauty I wouldn't encourage them in my own garden. The clue is in the 'sheets of blue'. They can be quite invasive when well suited (as they are locally!), excluding virtually everything else at their level. In my small plot they'd soon take over.
I do grow the closely related Spanish bluebell,
Hyacinthoides hispanica. Sturdier plants, they have more strap like leaves and upright stems with the bell flowers arranged around the stem rather than along one side with the English bluebell. Individual flowers are larger and, usually, two tone, with blue anthers in contrast to the white of their English cousins. Unfortunately not scented, they compensate by being easier to control in the garden, forming compact clumps rather than spreading carpets.
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| Hyacinthoides hispanica |
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| Hyacinthoides hispanica - close up showing the blue anthers |
So, pretty plants, possibly better suited to garden conditions than our native bluebell. What could possibly go wrong?
According to
recent studies the two species diverged as recently as 8000 years ago and, once placed in proximity (pollinators can travel surprising distances), hybridise readily to produce the variable hybrid
Hyacinthoides x massartiana. In appearance this produces plants covering a wide range of intermediate forms. Add in selection and a range of cultivars - some named, others not - and you have variants in pale blue, darker blue, white and pink. Ones like these:
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| Hyacinthoides x massartiana |
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| Hyacinthoides x massartiana |
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| Hyacinthoides x massartiana |
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| Hyacinthoides x massartiana |
Lovely plants - but when their genes get into the wild population they quickly become to dominate and the character of the native bluebell is lost. Some wild populations are threatened, particularly in areas close to towns and gardens, and especially in those places where - no doubt well meaning - gardeners seek to beautify the countryside and wild places by deliberately planting their own surplus. Well suited to gardens they may be - I wouldn't be without them - but they are not for the wild. Not unless we want to loose a plant that is endemic to North West Europe and where 60% of the total population is found in England and Wales.
As always, click to embiggen the photos.
Thanks for sharing us close up photos, makes it easier for readers to identify which ones are which. We're currently enjoying bluebell displays currently seen in most of the Cornish gardens we've visited so far :)
ReplyDeleteIt's the teacher / scientist in me! Explain but illustrate with lots of detail. And suffer. To get the close up shot I was at ground level and twisted to hold the camera and flash bracket steady enough for a 1.3:1 macro. Nearing 63 it hurts. Praise be to the person who invented knee pads.
DeleteThanks for an informative post, I have no bluebells in my garden, Spanish, English or hybrids, although I must admit I find the different coloured hybrids quite charming – probably not the right thing to say, I do of course understand the problem with preserving the native bluebells. For me as a Norwegian, none of these bluebells are the right kind of bluebells - to me that is Campanula rotundifolia, here in the UK called Scottish bluebells, but in my country simply called bluebells because they are the only ones around. They are found everywhere in the wild, and there are 3 different varieties, depending on how far north you go. It took a bit of time to get my head around calling the British bluebells the same :-)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, as a disabled with mobility problems, I have got around the problem of taking photos of plants that are low down. My digital camera (and my previous camera too) has a flip-out screen that can be turned in all directions, including upside down. My gardening stool comes with me around the garden when I am taking pictures. I sit on the gardening stool and hold my camera in front of whatever I want to take a picture of and then adjust the screen so I can see the picture. It drains the batteries a bit more using the screen all the time but I always have a second battery ready charged. I would be absolutely lost without my flip-out screen and it was the most deciding factor when I bought my new camera last year (Canon EOS 600D), if you have one on your camera but isn’t really using it to its full potential, perhaps you should give it a go. If you haven’t got a screen like that, then that might be something to have in mind next time you upgrade your camera.
Thanks for that, Helene. I did think of mentioning the Campanula in the piece but then I'd have also needed to add Mertensia virginica, the bluebell of Eastern USA and any others I could find. Maybe another blog post this time next year!
DeleteLike you I've got a 600D and that flip out screen (and live view) is incredibly useful for a lot of low level shots. Unfortunately in this case I was working hand held with my flash on a bracket and needed to get down to ground level to support the camera at an awkward angle. I've no problem getting down. Moving around at ground level is also OK. Getting up again? - there lies the problem!