Gardeners Tips

Bluebells can become invasive in the garden and become too much of a good thing. The bulbs go deep down into good soil and if you want to remove them they must be dug out totally. The white bulbs throw off little bulbils and they will grow back unless you clean up the soil to at  least 12 “. If your garden veers towards the more formal you may wish to tidy up by removing the bluebells.

After flowering the leaves of Bluebells loose the turgid nature and spread in a slimy manner over an 18″ diameter inhibiting other follow-on plants. To tidy up I pull up the clumps of leaves, stalks, seed heads and all to clear the ground. They come up very easily breaking off from the bulb and leaving that for future years. If I do it early enough the bulbs will weaken and flowers be poorer next year but as you may guess I am no great lover of Bluebells except in woodland situations.

Varieties of Bluebell

Spanish Bluebells Hyacinthoides hispanica are more invasive and are pushing our own native species out. If the flower spike is stiff and upright, flowers broadly spreading and petals usually not rolled back with clear blue Anthers you have Spanish Bluebells Hyacinthoides hispanica. They are unscented. Italian Bluebells Hyacinthoides italic are quite similar but less invasive.

English bluebells Hyacinthoides non-scripta have narrow leaves with scented flowers of straight-sided bells, petals that are rolled back (recurved) and Anthers which are creamy-white. The nodding, violet-blue flowers of these hardy, native bulbs attract insects to their delicately scented flowers. Bluebells grow best under the dappled shade of deciduous trees. It is illegal to take these plants from the wild, they must be acquired from a reputable source.

There are also hybrids of the two key varieties and most of my Bluebells must be the Spanish variety so out they will come.

These White Bluebells are running to seed. Take off seed heads to stop profligate self sowing.

Naming The Bluebell

• The botanic name is now Scilla campanulata and you can often buy bulbs under this name.
• Previously they were classified as Endymion who was a mythical Greek. Endymion campanulatus, Endymion hispanicus, Endymion patulus, and Scilla hispanica have also been used.
• Another common name ‘Wood Hyacinth’, seems to describe the plant and its preferred location.
• There are now many hybrid ‘Bluebells’ mixed with these white bells with names that indicate the colour eg Mount Everest (white) and Azalea (pink).

Bluebells look and smell marvelous in a deciduous wood but the Spanish bluebell in your garden can be a thug that needs tidying up after flowering. If after all this you wish to buy Bluebells you can do so from Thompson Morgan

See also bluebells in flower

Where to see Native Bluebells

Hackfall Wood Ripon.
Trench Wood Worcester
Winkworth Arboretum Surrey

Ashridge Estate, Berkhamsted, Buckinghamshire

Calke Abbey, Derbyshire

Duncliffe Wood, Stour Row, Shaftesbury, Dorset

Heartwood Forest, Sandridge, Hertfordshire

Burroughs Wood, Ratby, Leicestershire

Credenhill Park, Credenhill

Hardcastle Crags, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire

Coed Cefn, Chrickhowell, Powys, Wales

Glen Finglas (Brig o’Turk) Trossachs National Park, Scotland

Helenium are a mainstay of the herbaceous border generally flowering from late summer into late autumn.
The colour range is warm and at times fiery with reds, browns, oranges, yellows and bi-colours. Very appropriate for the season and easy to grow from seed.

Common Names

• Commonly known as Helen’s flower as they are believed to have been watered by Helen of Troys tears.
• Some species are also known as Sneezeweed as the dried ground leaves were used in USA as a form of snuff.
• There are 39 accepted species with over 220 known names.

Specific Varieties and Cultivars

• Helenium Sahin’s Early Flowerer (agm) opens with rich golden ray-florets and a central brown disc-floret. It fades to burnt orange over time.
• Helenium Ruby Thuesday is a new compact introduction with rich red florets
• Helenium Wyndley grows to about 32″ with yellow florets overlayed with brown and orange.
• Helenium autumnale ‘Sunshine Hybrids’ is a mixture of seed offering a dazzling colour range of flowers Height: 2-4ft.

Growing from Seed

• Sow February to June or September to October.
• Germinate at 55-59F on the surface of a good free draining, damp seed compost.
• Place in a propagator or seal container inside a polythene bag until after germination which usually takes 14-21 days.
• Do not exclude light at any stage, as this helps germination.
• Grow on in moist well drained soil.

Credits
HÉLÉNIUM by Mary.Do CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Impression, Helenium "Waltraut" by e³°°° CC BY-SA 2.0
Helenium autumnale, Sneezeweed by KingsbraeGarden CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Claiming to be the ultimate guide to plants and where to find them the new edition of the RHS Plant Finder 2012-2013 is now available from amazon.

Data Base Plant List

• The internet has far wider reaching data bases of plants if you care to search.
• The Plant List is the most comprehensive I have yet discovered.
• 2011-2020 is the United Nations decade of bio-divesity and they sponsor ‘The Plant List’

The Plant List Data Base

• The Plant List is the result of a collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden
• The Plant List provides the Accepted Latin name for most species, with links to all Synonyms by which that species has been known.
• The Plant List aims to be comprehensive for species flowering plants, conifers and ferns. It also covers Bryophytes or mosses and liverworts.
• The Plant List contains 620 plant families and 16,167 plant genera that currently includes 1,040,426 scientific plant names of species rank. Of these 298,900 are accepted species names.

Other Useful Plant Data Bases

• Global Compositae List
• International Legume Database & Information Service
• International Organization for Plant Information
• The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) is a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes

Perennials that tolerate coastal conditions are hardened to a salt ladened atmosphere and blustery wind. It is still prudent to place delicate specimens in some shelter from the worst of the conditions. Perhaps that is why so many successful seaside perennials are mat or carpet forming plants.

Perennials for The Seaside

• Erigeron glacus is not called the Seaside Aster for no reason. Hunt out these clump forming daisy plants such as variety Elstead Pink.
• Knipfolia or Red-Hot Poker Royal Standard form clumps of sword like leaves and spikes of flower red turning to yellow. They do not like freezing winter conditions so cover the crowns if the plants are in the north of the UK.
• Osteospermum jucundum are another daisy that is covered in cerise flowers during a seaside summer.
• Centranthus ruber or Red Valerian is like a weed in my garden but the flowers are long lasting
• Anthemeis is a reliable daisy flowering cream to yellow above silver grey foliage.

Ground Carpeting Perennials for The Seaside

• Armeria maritima Thrift or the Seapink
• Carpobrotus edulis is an easy-to-grow succulent for seaside groundcover.
• Eriogonum umbellatum is a herb also known as the sulphur flower.

Other Perennials Tolerant of Coastal Exposure

• Agapanthus ASfrican lily
• Allium christophii
• Centaurea cineraria
• Eriginum various species
• Oenthera odorata
• Phormium cookianum