ID Parade

[sewer rat]

Call it what you want Nick, but the native bluebell is at serious risk from it, so as far I'm concerned, it's a bloody weed !

[nick the grief]

From www.rampantscotland.com/let030426.htm

Bluebells of Scotland Threatened
According to Plantlife Scotland, the native bluebell, one of Scotland's emblematic flowers, is under threat both from unscrupulous bulb collectors and from a Spanish variety which is infiltrating many woodlands. The Spanish variety is the one most commonly sold in garden centres and it is also spreading into the wild. Climate change and destruction of woodland habitat is also a threat. The charity is to undertake a survey to measure the extent to which the indigenous variety is being pushed out.

So there you have it, destroy all invaders!

[poultrychat]

Thanks ntg, I will keep pulling all the ones in the garden up!

[Shortie]

The great debate

Thanks guys... The colour is the same as the native bluebell in my garden but certainly doesn't look like it.... and does look a lot like the spanish one...

Nicos, do you have a photo of your hyacinths that are changing? (p.s. naturalising is when a flower is in conditions it likes and so quickly divides/spreads... something I hope my snakehead frittila do!)

The only thing I'm still puzzled about on the bluebell front is that I only have two (one last year). Knowing the spanish bluebell and grape hyacyth (plenty of those I'm afraid) the spread like wildfire, so why had this one not...?

[Shortie]

Oh, and thanks Rat, googled Ribes and it looks like the Ribes sanguineum...?

[SueA]

Hi Shortie,
SNAP! I've got exactly the same plant in my garden. It's definitely not a Spanish bluebell as ours are strongly scented & the Spanish ones have no scent & are wishy-washy pale lilac, blue, pink or white in colour. It's not a native bluebell as the leaves are much broader on ours & the plants are 'chunkier' as Nicos says. I'm certain mine is a hyacinth because I planted out a couple of bulbs which I had grown indoors in 2 glass bulb vases a few years ago.Nothing appeared the first year or if it did it didn't flower & I forgot about them but last year this pretty blue flower appeared & apparently when you plant the forced bulbs out they do revert to a more natural, looser flower form like this.

[Nicos]

SueA -that's much like mine!.....how come mine are just pushing their leaves and yours are in flower??? Glad you managed the photo! I wonder if the bulb sizes would be bigger than that of the spanish bluebell? Might be another way to tell the difference.

[Shortie]

Cheers for the phot SueA... I'm settled then, they're hyacinth's.

[JennieAtkinson]

Here are the two for you to compare.

Spanish on the left (not very good colour I'm afraid)

[ATTACH]85[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]86[/ATTACH]

I think your's look like the spanish job

I thought I had the real thing - Scottish bluebells. But your photo nick means I have a garden full of the Spanish ones. And I thought we were too far north to have been infiltrated.

[SueA]

SueA -that's much like mine!.....how come mine are just pushing their leaves and yours are in flower??? Glad you managed the photo! I wonder if the bulb sizes would be bigger than that of the spanish bluebell? Might be another way to tell the difference.

Hi Nicos,
The one which is in flower is actually growing in a large barrel in a fairly sheltered spot in my south facing back garden so that's probably why it's in flower already. It's been a bit weird this spring though with some plants flowering late & some early.