The bluebells were the splashy stars of April, but by mid-May, they are winding down.
They go fast at this point.
If I left those flower stems alone, they would flop down and turn yellow, then sprinkle seeds around, but I don’t think I need more bluebell seedlings next spring, so the plan is to remove the flower stalks, leaving the original basal rings of bluebell leaves, and revealing the tidy hosta border hiding within all that greenery.
Bluebell stems are tender enough to make ordinary scissors a perfect tool for the job. I have a pair just for gardening.
The easiest way to do it is to grab a few flower stalks—attached to the same plant—and tug very gently while sliding down them with scissors in hand to a likely looking spot to cut. Then snip. I discovered there weren’t millions of plants, so it did not take much time.
Clearing out the bluebell debris allows the asters to show nicely behind the hostas. They have gained most of their height while the bluebells were showing off. The asters will bloom in mid-summer.
The thing that makes this look tidier may surprise you at first—it’s the shadow line that defines the two long edges of the hosta border.
While I was focussing this border, I discovered some botanical silliness. The elm seeds are raining down on the yard, and somehow they have rained vertically right into the slots in the hosta-leaf petioles. There are even more elm seeds falling this year than last, and I have been pulling seedlings wherever I see them since April. Next year is promising to be worse.
To add to the general seediness of late spring, the silver maple is starting to drop its seeds. At least they are big enough to rake up.