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English bluebell,Spanish bluebell,scilla is it me or are these plants confusing

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,128
    Dovefromabove wrote (see)

    Your first picture looks a bit like an English native, but I think that the flowers don't all come from one side of the stem, and that they're not drooping enough.  .....

     

    Sorry, my mistake - I should've said 'your second pic.............' image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Jim MacdJim Macd Posts: 750

    If you don't want Spanish BB in your garden they you'll have to eradicate all BB in your garden first, then buy English BB from a reputable dealer, then dead head them and remove any seedlings that get through the net. EBB and SBB hybridise so easily. All the ones in your photos look like Spanglish BB to me. It's not easy to tell the difference, you have to take into account a list of criteria. Pollen is the best however the pollen may have gone and the lack of colour may lead you to think you have EBB so check the other criteria. I posted this I think last year. Got to end the typing now but a google search with show the other criteria.

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,614

    image

     

    image

     In the ancient woodland at Felley Priory.

  • Jim MacdJim Macd Posts: 750
    fidgetbones wrote (see

     

     In the ancient woodland at Felley Priory.

     

    Yeah, I don't think it's true to say if they're not blue they're SBB. 

    The link Dove gave for the NHM website is the best. I thought there were five markers but I can't think if the fifth so perhaps I was wrong. Basically if it doesn't have all four criteria then it's a Spanish or Spanglish BB. I bought bulbs and dead head. But getting rid of Spanglish BB is an absolute nightmare. I think they should be banned from sale. There's a clump in the Durham Wildlife's Rainton Meadows that some well meaning idiot put there and all my neighbours have either hybrids or Spanish so even if I do ever get rid of mine I'll never be able to allow the EBB to seed themselves.

  • SusiejennySusiejenny Posts: 22

    I was told that Spanish Bluebells have thick leaves and the English ones have thinner, barely 1" thick ones.

  • cotty1000cotty1000 Posts: 293

    image

     I bought these last autumn and they were labelled English bluebells,I think that they aren't.

    image

     This plant arches over,but I think it's the wrong colour.

    image

     And these I think are neither English or Spanish.

    Any ideas?

    Are there other plants that cause so much confusion?

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