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'Outgrowing' Spanish bluebells

Kai_63Kai_63 Posts: 81
in Plants
I tried a quick search but couldn't see anything about this. We have lots of Spanish bluebells in our garden borders which I'm not particularly keen on.



I don't have the patience to pull them up and just wondered if I could balance out all the blue and mauve with some small flowering shrubs (I figure the more of these I grow around the larger shrubs the less space for the bluebells to come up). We have an east facing garden getting 6 hours or so of sun a day. I'm looking for easy and hardy plants with complementary flower colours, perhaps pinks, yellows and oranges? Perhaps geraniums?



Could this work or should I just accept that the bluebells are here to stay!
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  • B3B3 Posts: 27,503

    If they're anything like mine, they'll swamp everything. Best to at least pull out the leaves and flowers if you can't face burrowing down to your elbows to get the bulb out!

    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • Invicta2Invicta2 Posts: 663

    These plants are a menace to our own native Bluebells so I suggest you pull them and bin them or spray them with weedkiller.

  • RedwingRedwing Posts: 1,511

    They are more then a menace, they are a threat to our native bluebells. Dig them up.

     

    Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
  • Kai_63Kai_63 Posts: 81
    Thank you. Yes I am aware they are a menace but given they are in every garden around our area with no visible signs of attempted removal I'm not sure my efforts in a border 3m by 1m is going to make much difference.



    My question related to whether effectively squeezing out the spaces they can grow in could work (it has worked with larger shrubs such as Escallonia where previously bluebells used to grow so I wondered whether smaller shrubs and other plants would fare as well).



    I only have an hour or so per week to devote to the garden which includes other raised beds and a small lawn, hence my question.
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618

    Spanish bluebells grow well under most  deciduous shrubs. I have them. There are no English bluebells at all around here. I have to travel 15miles up the motorway to see some. I like them in a vase, but they do tend to flop.

  • Kai_63Kai_63 Posts: 81
    Thank you, same here, we live in an urban environment and I think the Spanish bluebells have already done their work.



    Evergreen shrubs perhaps?
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384

    Doesn't take 5 minutes to spray them with glyphosate.

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • Kai_63Kai_63 Posts: 81
    This is from the RHS website so I assumed that weedkiller wasn't an option?





    "Bluebells are strongly resistant to weedkillers and it appears that no garden weedkiller will kill them or even check their growth."
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    It's worth a try Kai - your border doesn't sound very big so you could try a combination of weedkiller and  spreading evergreens. 

    Hebes will grow well enough there and will help a bit if you choose the denser types like Vernicosa. Pittosporums and Osmanthus are bigger, but not massive shrubs, and you can prune them to keep them smaller and denser.  Pulling off the stems of the bluebells as they appear will help too.

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • Kai_63Kai_63 Posts: 81
    That is lovely! What are the other flowers growing there?
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