My bluebell and snowdrop dream

I dream of creating bluebell and snowdrop ‘drifts’. Being able to grow them at all would be nice. A ‘mini-drift’ would be a happy compromise.

I saw my first snowdrop of the year in a pot at the allotments last week. A lovely sight, but I hadn’t actually planted them. I was happy to associate myself with them though. I even wrote about them in my ‘Blooming NOW: February 2020 post yesterday.

The truth is, I have had very little joy growing snowdrops and bluebells, which, along with yellow winter Aconites, are mainstays of the late winter and spring woodland, countryside and garden landscape in the UK.

Other than the few times when I was blatantly at fault, I’m not quite sure why I’ve had poor results. I’ve done well with other ‘naturalisers’ such as Crocuses, Daffodils, Iris reticulata, and even Leucojum, a relative of the snowdrop. Could it be that I didn’t plant them deep enough and squirrels or other wildlife made off with them? Or maybe the bulbs were of poor quality in the first place. Who knows?

To give you some idea as to why I’m so bothered by my lack of success with bluebells and snowdrops, just take a look at these pictures of them growing naturally in and near woodland.

My post of 17 February 2020 gave some background information on snowdrops. There are different species of bluebell. The bluebell I’ve been trying to grow is the English bluebell. Here’s a mini ‘English bluebell 101’:

English bluebells

The English bluebell or Hyacinthoides non-scripta is a bulbous, perennial plant that was first documented in 1773 by Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician. Hyacinthoides non-scripta grows to a height of 30-40cm, and has long, linear basal leaves. It earned its name from the nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, lightly scented, violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals it produces in spring.

They like rich, moist, slightly acidic soil.

The native English bluebell is arguably one of the UK’s favourite flowers, and is particularly associated with ancient woodland, where it can dominate the understorey to produce amazing carpets of violet–blue flowers in "bluebell woods". It also occurs in more open habitats, has naturalised in may countries, and is a popular garden plant.

Leucojums give me the will to keep trying.

While I have struggled width bluebells and snowdrops, I always have glorious showings of Leucojums every single year without fail, and with little more than a spot of weeding and occasional feeding on my part. Leucojums are native to Eurasia. Common names include ‘Snowflake’, ‘Dewdrop’, St Agnes’ Flower’ and ‘Snowbell. These close relatives of the snowdrop are bulbous perennials, 50-90cm tall, with narrowly strap-shaped leaves and umbels of bell-shaped white, rarely pink flowers. Flower tepals are often tipped with green. There are two species - Leucojum vernum or spring flowered snowflake and Leucojum aestivum or summer-flowered snowflake - and a growing number of cultivars of each.

Leucojum grow well in moist soils, preferring damp situations such as wet meadows, ditches, and shaded woodland. They’re pretty tough, and grow well in full sun and clay soils too. Both species are now naturalised in many countries the world over, including parts of Europe and Japan, Uruguay and North America.

My initial handful of Leucojum vernum bulbs have multiplied quite a bit, and now share a bed with other plants.

Leucojum vernum blooming well in a pot. All of them are now planted in the ground on my allotment plot. I’ll post a picture when they come into flower this year. I say that with confidence!

Now, back to the matter of snowdrops and bluebells …

Remeniscing on my runaway success with Leucojum has given me the fortitude to tackle my snowdrop and bluebell ‘problem’ (if I really do still have one) head on.

I was prompted to write this post after seeing a marketing email from a supplier advertising the availability of English bluebells and other naturalisers ‘in the green’. By ‘in the green’, horticulture suppliers mean that established plants are harvested when they’re in full leaf and sold for transplantation into the desired location. For some plants, including snowdrops and bluebells, this method is believed to produce more reliable results than the planting of bulbs in autumn.

Yesterday, I read that bluebells may take a while to establish - full stop, and that they may only produce a few leaves in the first year. Could I have gotten rid of some of them by mistake, thinking they were weeds? A eureka moment. This could be it …

I have a distant memory of buying snowdrops and bluebells ‘in the green’ a couple of years ago or so, but there was a lot going on at the time and I didn’t open the box for months. Unfortunately, they rotted in their plastic packaging before I could plant them. If I’m honest the bulbs that I have planted more recently may well have been knocking about for months before I got around to planting them too. I know I planted some last year, in the shade, but believe it or not, I’m not sure exactly where … I promised myself to mark the planting spots but didn’t.

I’m going to have to take a step back, WATCH, and wait to see what happens this spring. There will be no knee-jerk reactions, no rushing to buy bluebells ‘in the green’ RIGHT NOW - not this year. That’s it. I hereby declare that there will be a probation period with regards to snowdrops and bluebells between now and the end of spring!

With the probation period for my last planting clearly defined in my mind, the challenge for me now is going to be weeding that 5 x 2 m patch of shaded ground where I think the snowdrops and bluebells are or should be, and making sure that I don’t mistake them for weeds. There are lots of other herbaceous plants in the ‘milleaux’ 'that die back during winter such as Hostas, Astilbe and Meconopsis, as well as different types of ferns. Hmmm …

I could study pictures of the leaves of plants that are ‘under threat’ from my weeding activity online before I embark on it. That might help. I could also not weed the area at all, leaving nature to its devices. After all, that’s what happens in ancient woodland where there is limited human intervention, and snowdrops and bluebells have established themselves … That’s it - no weeding in that 5 x 2m patch of ground!

I’m going to have to be patient. Patience can be a virtue in gardening. It is still winter. Spring has not sprung. I must remember that nature has its own timetable. Nature, as well as changing weather and climate conditions (natural or man-made) mean that outcomes will not always be ‘text book’. I should know that. I do know that.

I’ll wait, in the knowledge that if they don’t come up this spring, I will put in an order for bluebells and snowdrops ‘in the green’ next year.

I still dream of English bluebell and snowdrop drifts!