It's fine to plant bulbs or seeds as they won't somehow transform into Spanish ones, but any seeds produced after they flower will likely be crosses. So, after they have flowered simply cut off the dying flowers before the seed pods form. Once you have dug-up all of the Spanish ones you can let the English ones self-seed to increase but be aware that if nearby (or even quite far away - bees fly a looooong way) gardens have Spanish bluebells there is still a good chance that any seeds produced may be crosses. The bulbs will naturally divide anyway so to be sure of retaining only English bluebells, never let them form seeds.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
The vast majority of our so called English bluebells are now hybrids, the only true ones are found in areas that are well away from the Spanish ones! I wouldn't fuss too much about it as you already have Spanish ones around
all I'm saying is that there are so many hybrids that we may have already lost the English Bluebell in all but a few lucky places. Unless you live near one of these then I wouldn't go too mad in trying to eradicate the Spanish. It's here and will be forever. ????
Posts
It's fine to plant bulbs or seeds as they won't somehow transform into Spanish ones, but any seeds produced after they flower will likely be crosses. So, after they have flowered simply cut off the dying flowers before the seed pods form. Once you have dug-up all of the Spanish ones you can let the English ones self-seed to increase but be aware that if nearby (or even quite far away - bees fly a looooong way) gardens have Spanish bluebells there is still a good chance that any seeds produced may be crosses. The bulbs will naturally divide anyway so to be sure of retaining only English bluebells, never let them form seeds.
The vast majority of our so called English bluebells are now hybrids, the only true ones are found in areas that are well away from the Spanish ones! I wouldn't fuss too much about it as you already have Spanish ones around
Sorry Rhod but I think we should at least try to keep them separated. Our bluebells are so much nicer than spanish.
I agree yvie
all I'm saying is that there are so many hybrids that we may have already lost the English Bluebell in all but a few lucky places. Unless you live near one of these then I wouldn't go too mad in trying to eradicate the Spanish. It's here and will be forever. ????