A Bluebell Wood

There is nothing more lovely in May than a walk through a Bluebell wood

Close to where I live is a wood that is at its best now – it is ablaze with a carpet of bright blue flowers

Through the beech trees this floral tapestry literally shimmers with an intense deep blue, the colour of lapus lazuli

These bluebells are the English variety, I can tell as they flower on a single stem with a distinctive droop, like the curve of a shepherd’s crook

These native bluebells are a distinctive deep blue in colour with flowers that curl back at the petal tips and the leaves are thinner

 

But our native Bluebells are under threat and losing ground to the Spanish variety that was introduced into gardens by the Victorians. This Spanish Bluebell has escaped into the wild and where it crossbreeds with our native plants and produces fertile hybrids with a mix of characteristics..

The Spanish Bluebells and their hybrids have a more upright appearance, a paler in colour and have flowers on all sides of the stems. They have splayed petal tips and thicker leaves