Spanish Bluebells: How to get rid of them, and why.

Yes, it's that time again:

The snowdrops were lovely, the daffodils are just starting to go over,  and look out, here come the first signs of bluebells.

In this case, Spanish bluebells, not our native ones.

And that means it's time to dig them out!

Why?

Because a lot of my Clients are concerned about the dangers of Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica, or Scilla hispanica) invading and hybridising with our English Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta). 

This is a valid concern: if you want to know more about it, check out my Field Guide on the subject: 

 

Even if you are not particularly bothered about the risk to our English bluebells, then it is still a concern to many gardeners, that Spanish bluebells are rampant spreaders, and will quickly smother any other spring flowers in their area.

How to remove them? Just dig them out: push in the fork, vertically, as close to the clump as you can get, then lever them out.

Normally, when digging out bulbs, I knock off the soil, to avoid removing good soil from the garden.

However,  when trying to get rid of something (as opposed to merely moving it), I am a bit cautious, and don't handle them too roughly, in order to avoid any small bulbs falling out of the clump and ending up back in the soil.

This is what bluebell bulbs look like:

They are fleshy, and white, not firm and brown, like Tulips or Daffodils.

The larger ones are what you might call bulb-shaped, but smaller ones are long,  and look more like weird roots: they do this just to confuse us, in the hopes that we won't realise what they are, and will anxiously re-plant them.

Be firm! Anything with fleshy, slightly squashy, white bulbs needs to be heaved out and disposed of properly.

"Proper disposal" means not putting them on the compost, because then they will assume that they have been planted, and will grow, flowers, set seed, and contaminate all the compost.

It also means not fly tipping them - don't dump them over the back fence into that handy piece of waste ground: that's how they escape, and spread. 

Put them into your Green Waste wheelie bin if you have one, because the municipal processing will render them harmless. If not, put them into your kitchen waste bin: they will then be processed along with your other vegetable waste, and will do some good.

If you are really particular, then yes, you can cut off the leaves and compost them, as long as you are careful not to get any of the bulbs into the compost.

Talking of being careful, always handle bluebells with gloves,  because all parts of bluebells are toxic - that is, the leaves, the bulbs, and the flowers.

They won't exactly kill  you on sight - you'd have to eat an awful lot of them for them to do you much harm, and most of the bluebell poisoning cases are horses or cattle, who have eaten the foliage.

However, the sap is very sticky stuff (it used to be used to glue feathers to arrows, would you believe) and it can be an irritant to the skin.

Another perfectly good reason for digging them out! 

 

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