English Bluebells

One of the many things I really miss from England is the seas of bluebells, that make such a spectacular sight in woods during the spring. I remember the first time I ever saw bluebells. It was possible to walk from my home, to some woodland where bluebells grow. It was an exciting walk and as we got nearer to the wood, we would start to find the odd bluebell flower, that somebody had picked and dropped on their way home. I don't know if we were allowed to pick bluebells that grew wild, but everybody did. Bluebells don't last long once picked so it's much better to leave them where they are or have some in your garden. I really wanted some bluebells in my garden in Sweden. All you get here is blue wood anemones and a small native bluebell, but they're just not in the same league! Somebody in England was going to send me some bluebell bulbs, but it never happened and as it turned out, they were Spanish bluebells. The Spanish bluebell is a menace that easily hybridises with the English bluebell and is slowly but surely eradicating the native plants. I definitely don't want Spanish bluebells. If seeds from any of mine were to find their way into the nearby forest, I want them to be pure English bluebells. I found loads to buy online, but I just couldn't be sure that if I ordered them, I was not going to get Spanish or hybrid bluebells. In the end, I ordered 40 bulbs from a small nursery here in Sweden.

#English #Bluebell #Bulbs

It was quite late in the year, the twenty-sixth of November. Luckily the snow that had come earlier in the month had melted away and the ground wasn't frozen. Some years it has snowed at the end of October and not melted until the next spring. Anyway, I got to work planting my 40 bulbs in the small 'woodland' area of my garden. It doesn't sound like many bulbs, but scrambling around in the cold, in amongst the tightly growing trees, it felt like a lot. I even planted a few in other areas of the garden, just to give a better chance of success. As far as I could see from what I'd read, English bluebells should be able to stand the winter here, but I wasn't sure, especially as I've not seen a single bluebell in Sweden. The long winter has finally ended and ever since the snow and ice disappeared, I've been examining the areas when I think I planted the bluebells. At last, the first leaves have started to appear.

This is the 2nd of May and you can just make out a couple of green shoots. Ten days later, I have found 16 bluebells in four different areas. The area above was the main part of the garden where I wanted to have bluebells. So far, I've found 9 here, but they are still coming through. I expect that within a week, all those that are alive will have come up. Time will tell....