They look like the Spanish ones to me. They are quite chunky and upright, whereas the English ones are slightly more dainty and have a very obvious downwards droop to the stem, not just downwards facing flowers.
Memphit
Spanish. English ones have the flowers all in one direction.
North-Star2443
They are a hybrid. You will mostly see hybrids these days.
Spanish ones are a light blue, bigger, more open and upright. English ones are darker purple and hang down in an arch, they are very dainty. These are somewhere in-between.
Do they smell? If they have a strong scent then they’re native and if they don’t they’re Spanish (Spanish bluebells have no scent, or at most a very weak fragrance).
ilovebovril
Sigh, I’ve grown loathe these, we have them all over the garden and they spread. Once they get in a new area they are prolific.
Significant-Gene9639
If it were me I would remove any hybrid or Spanish plants, plant in their place lots and lots of native bulbs and hope to eventually outcompete the Spanish ones in your area
It would be futile but noble
flusteredchic
These are Spanish or hybrid. English bluebells are quite distinctive
12 Comments
They look like the Spanish ones to me. They are quite chunky and upright, whereas the English ones are slightly more dainty and have a very obvious downwards droop to the stem, not just downwards facing flowers.
Spanish. English ones have the flowers all in one direction.
They are a hybrid. You will mostly see hybrids these days.
Spanish ones are a light blue, bigger, more open and upright. English ones are darker purple and hang down in an arch, they are very dainty. These are somewhere in-between.
While this post is for Cumbria, it applies nationwide: https://www.cumbriabotany.co.uk/look-out-for/bluebells/
Bluebells hybridise easily.
Do they smell? If they have a strong scent then they’re native and if they don’t they’re Spanish (Spanish bluebells have no scent, or at most a very weak fragrance).
Sigh, I’ve grown loathe these, we have them all over the garden and they spread. Once they get in a new area they are prolific.
If it were me I would remove any hybrid or Spanish plants, plant in their place lots and lots of native bulbs and hope to eventually outcompete the Spanish ones in your area
It would be futile but noble
These are Spanish or hybrid. English bluebells are quite distinctive
https://preview.redd.it/2dm3uf6u86ze1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ee160031161e2cf6d89cdd79a6db7705c7ed5a2
Smaller, Narrower, the petals curl much more distinctively, only flowers on one side of stem, deeper purple petals and white/creamy yellow stamen.
There’s a sliding scale from native to Spanish, the vast majority are somewhere in the middle.
Picture This is great for this sort of shit. One of the few worth the subscription.
We shall call them Spanglish Bluebells
Starting to think I’ve never seen English ones