Looking at the bluebell photographs that I never got around to posting last year, two things stick out: this year’s bluebells came up over two weeks earlier than last year, and they did not get nibbled by ravenous rabbits. There are limits to what they will eat after all.
This year, the rabbits left the bluebells alone. Perhaps there were too many overwintered leaves hiding them.
Within three weeks they were covered with sprays of obvious flower buds.
Some plants have bluer flower buds, but a few have pink buds.
I am relieved to say that the flowers opened blue.
There are little spots of pink here and there, but even with freshly opened flowers, the bluebells remain blue. Whew! They get bluer as they age to a blue that positively vibrates in late afternoon sunlight.
Once the flowers start dropping, the plants flop, a potential problem, since they are the largest spring ephemera in this yard. Fortunately, there are narrow-leaved asters behind them and hostas in front of them, both of which get big rather fast, distracting the eye and covering the yellowing plants. This year, I lopped the spent flower stalks off all the plants. I took a close look to see how they manage to produce so many seedlings, which were apparent in the grassy path in front of them.
Each flower produces three or four seeds, which doesn’t sound like a lot until you multiply those seeds by a gazillion flowers.
These flower stalks could be scattered on a partially shady spot to start a new bed of bluebells, but this year, they got composted.