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Bluebells

Wild EdricWild Edric Posts: 12
in Talkback

I'd love to have some bluebells in my garden. Can anyone tell me the best conditions and attentions to make them happy and give me a spring show every year. Thanks

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Posts

  • darren636darren636 Posts: 666
    Buy them now ' in the green'

    Plant them asap, water and mulch with leaf mold

    Or garden compost. Hyacinthoides non scripta is the English bluebell.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    Deciduous shade is where you find them in the wild. image



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • BluebelleBluebelle Posts: 28

    I have them throughout my west facing garden and they are thriving. They know they're loved that might be it! image 

  • Wild EdricWild Edric Posts: 12

    Thank you. I like the idea of sowing seed Bluebells … nurturing my own so to speak, I hadn't thought of this. The spot I have in mind faces east.

  • darren636darren636 Posts: 666
    Bluebells from seed will likely take 3 years to flower.



    Time is the fire in which we burn....
  • Wild EdricWild Edric Posts: 12

    Indeed time waits for no man or woman … I'll buy them 'in the green'

  • HOLEDIGGERHOLEDIGGER Posts: 87
    Careful they can spread like wildfire.
  • darren636darren636 Posts: 666
    The nasty Spanish ones do.

    The English bluebell is much better behaved and easier to control.
  • HOLEDIGGERHOLEDIGGER Posts: 87
    True ! but friends and neighbours may well think they have "Bluebells" and give some away,not many people have a clue what the difference is, that includes me.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    To correct an erroneous statement made earlier

    Mike Allen wrote (see)
    .... The Bluebells are also bulbs, but of a different kind. To illustrate. Some plants species have the ability to produce swollen roots, that can be used to increase the species.

    In the case of the Bluebell. No reproduction except by seed. ...

     

    The above statement is incorrect.

    "... Bluebells can spread rapidly, sending out underground runners, on the end of which new bulbs form. .." 

    an extract from the RHS website https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=426

    This is important as gardeners trying to control an area of Spanish bluebells may assume from the information given earlier,  that it is enough to remove the seedheads - it is not.


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





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