Advice on creating a bluebell wood

[Billabong Karen]

Hi, I have a fairly large woody area at the bottom of my garden, with large trees, partly deciduous and partly conifer. I would love to create a bluebell wood, and would like any advice you can offer.

Is it better to plant bluebell bulbs or seeds? And where is the best place to get native English bluebell bulbs (or seeds)?

Also, I have some sort of voles in my garden that eat any tulips bulbs etc I plant. They leave daffodils bulbs alone though. If I go to a huge effort and expense of planting loads of bluebell bulbs, are my little furry friends likely to eat them all???

Thanks for any help! Karen

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Billabong Karen

Hi, I have a fairly large woody area at the bottom of my garden, with large trees, partly deciduous and partly conifer. I would love to create a bluebell wood, and would like any advice you can offer. Is it better to plant bluebell bulbs or seeds? And where is the best place to get native English bluebell bulbs (or seeds)? Also, I have some sort of voles in my garden that eat any tulips bulbs etc I plant. They leave daffodils bulbs alone though. If I go to a huge effort and expense of planting loads of bluebell bulbs, are my little furry friends likely to eat them all??? Thanks for any help! Karen

Growing bulbous plants from seed is usually a challenging task and seed to flower often takes several years, so if you want flowers next Spring you need to plant bulbs this Autumn. There are a number of suppliers of native bluebells, cost usually start at around £0.50 -0.60 per bulb, reducing on the basis of quantity. If you are looking at spending a lot, my suggestion would be to seek advice from the supplier regarding planting, soil requirement, preparation etc. It's alway sensinsible to shop around of course, but Naturescape Native British Wild Flowers is worth including in any list of native plant suppliers.

CM

[Billabong Karen]

Many thanks for the input, that's very useful advice.

[King Edward]

I'd been going to suggest Shipton Bulbs, another wild flower/bulb supplier, but their bluebell prices are very similar to Naturescape's. I'd have though 100 bulbs for £17.50 should develop into a pretty reasonable patch - plant them soon and their roots will start growing over the autumn. They do like a fair bit of light in the spring though, so the darker conifer-shaded areas would be less suitable.

[Billabong Karen]

Yes, I think I'll put them under the deciduous trees where there will be dappled shade in the spring. Also there is a patch where we felled a tree last year, so I imagine they would like it there.

I also want to try foxgloves - will they grow in the same patch as bluebells, do you think? I know they flower later, so I was hoping to have bluebells in the spring and then foxgloves in the summer...

[Farplace]

Last year we planted about 2000 native bluebell bulbs in our wood. Most were dug up and eaten by badgers. We had just 8 plants flower this spring. Hopefully these 8 will spread.....

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Billabong Karen

Yes, I think I'll put them under the deciduous trees where there will be dappled shade in the spring. Also there is a patch where we felled a tree last year, so I imagine they would like it there. I also want to try foxgloves - will they grow in the same patch as bluebells, do you think? I know they flower later, so I was hoping to have bluebells in the spring and then foxgloves in the summer...

Foxgloves tend to prefer a fairly rich, deep soil, so may struggle in an area that is heavily tree rooted, light requirements shouldn't be problem though. You may find it difficult to get foxgloves to develop from seed sown under trees, so it may be necessary to grow them on in pots and plant them out for flowering; they are binnniels (although sometimes reflowering in the third year but only rather sparsely), so you would need to propogate more each year. They do produce plenty of seed though.

CM

[King Edward]

Foxgloves would probably do better in gaps among perennial plants (e.g. in a herbaceous border), rather than in the shade. If you have a suitable area you could either just scatter the seed in bare areas, or grow in pots and plant out as CM suggests - this is probably better if you don't have much seed.

[Farplace]

I have a large area of foxgloves in my wood. its in an area of conifers, with a lot of open sunny spaces.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by Farplace

I have a large area of foxgloves in my wood. its in an area of conifers, with a lot of open sunny spaces.

For future reference - How do they do re-self seeding and what's the soil like - depth, moisture holding etc ?

CM