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Could this be a bluebell?

I was surprised today by something blue in a patch of gone-to-seed muscari azureum. I almost think it's a bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) but I can't imagine how it got there. The muscari were planted out here as a potful of seedlings, grown from seed collected here, so the seeds couldn't have been contaminated... maybe the soil? I reuse soil all the time and have tried bluebell seed in the past. Maybe it can sit dormant for a few years?

So do you think it's a bluebell? Did I finally get a seedling doing everything wrong rather than through careful attention? I'll post a photo when it opens, I've only tried seeds from wild populations overseas, hopefully ones without any hispanica influence.



Comments (10)

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Yes, and it could even be the genuine wild species rather than the horrible invasive Spanish Bluebell. If you will post the flowers when they open fully and also some of the leaves we can confirm or not.

    katob Z6ish, NE Pa thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
  • 3 years ago

    I thought I'd be right back with another photo but it's been chilly and things are standing still.

  • 3 years ago

    I sowed seeds about 8 years ago and planted a coupla small clumps of english bluebells in the wood as bulbs. The last 2 years, we can see the bluebells are beginning to colonise a few other areas. It seems to take around 5-6 years for seeds to reach blooming size but once that point is reached, you should start to see more and more appearing each year.

    katob Z6ish, NE Pa thanked rosaprimula UK (Cambridge) Z8/9
  • 3 years ago

    I've been out and about today and the woods are full of bluebells at the moment. Lovely.

    katob Z6ish, NE Pa thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
  • 3 years ago

    Always funny how things catch up so quickly here. Our springs come in fast and furious.

    About two inches of rain in the last 24 hours and even when temperatures are cold the spring rain still does its magic.




    Today this tiny flower is my favorite thing.


  • 3 years ago

    Hopefully there will be seed this summer, and seedlings next spring, and before you know it sheets here as well. I just need a woodland and a longer life lol.

    Tomorrow if it's dry I need to crawl up to them and see if I can detect a scent from just three or four open blooms!

  • 3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    Um, I have very mixed feelings about bluebell woods, Floral. In beechwoods and other dense woodlands where nothing really thrives beneath a summer canopy, sure...and they are, in their season, lovely to look at and smell... but I would be dismayed to have such dense colonies in my wood (well, old, neglected plantation, tbf). I feel I am taking a risk with cowslips and oxslips - very successful coloniser in certain woodlands. My main woodland floor flower is red campion....which is everywhere but still allows a lot of other wildlings to inhbit the same space.


    It has been a very steep learning curve in the decade since buying a pocket wood. I am sure you recall my fervent (misguided) ideas to 'garden' in it. These days, I am limited to occasional flinging seed about and much strimming and path clearing. No actual gardening as such.

    The allotment though...is nothing like any of the other plots on my site - I do not envy the council or future allotment owner when I have cocked my clogs. Trees abound...and gigantic wild roses.

  • 3 years ago

    I don't have mixed feeliings about bluebell woods. I'm 100% for them. They're rare enough to be welcome anywhere, imo. Round here you're even more likely to get a carpet of wild garlic, so bluebells are a bonus.

  • 3 years ago

    I was just looking at the garden today, considering how heavy equipment would be needed to clean it out for a "normal" person to move in. I wish I had heavy equipment for the making phase, then I really could have messed it up.

    There is now an industrial park behind us, and the edges are reverting to wild, but it's a weed-filled wild polluted with mugwort and knotweed. I trespass with a batch of weedkiller every few weeks and try to head off the invasion but I wonder how long I can hold the line. I throw seeds as well, but the only exciting thing so far are persimmon sprouts which I thought died after transplanting, some panicum and a patch of monarda which just showed up on its own. Maybe more interesting things will show but for now I need to get the mugwort out.