They're English!

Just as the daffodils have faded and flopped in the orchard, the bluebells make their entrance and I am always asked if ours are native English ones or Spanish interlopers.   I am pleased to report we have good old fashioned English bluebells.

There is a difference in the flower shape - the imposters have open, shallow bells but the English ones have long thin bells with curled back petals.  Also, the Spanish bluebell has a more erect stem but for English bluebells the weight of the flowers pull the stems over in a droop. 

We have droop!

Spanish bluebells hybridise with English ones which is a problem but whether you have Spanish or English bluebells, they can behave like weeds.  They have a habit of sprouting up everywhere in huge numbers and if you dig them up and put them in the compost heap, they grow happily in there too.  We are lucky at Springfield in that we can give them the elbow room they need but in our last garden, they nearly took over the flower beds.  At first we tolerated them and by the time we left, we hated them! 

However, you can fall in and out of love with plants and because here the bluebells are not a threat, we can relax and enjoy them. 

I cannot wax as lyrically as Emily Bronte does in the Bluebell Poem but I do take issue with her about bluebells being summer flowers. .....

The Bluebell is the sweetest flower
That waves in summer air:
Its blossoms have the mightiest power
To soothe my spirit's care.......

I think of them as spring flowers but perhaps they are the first of the summer flowers.......?