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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU--bluebell picking

91 replies

Abra1d · 04/05/2012 18:01

OK, I know it's not actually illegal to pick bluebells in England, but AIBU to think that if you are at a National Trust beauty spot and you allow your children to pick large bunches of bluebells (four or five children picking) you are not really being very considerate? I'm not talking about a couple of flowers for a jam jar. The mothers were taking photos of the children with the bunches, so they knew what was going on.

When we went to the car park the children had dropped some of the bluebells on the ground and they had been trampled on. I felt so sad. These are beautiful flowers, and quite rare now as they are 'proper' English bluebells, not the Spanish hybrids.

Perhaps I am being grumpy, but it just seemed a bit selfish. What do others think?

OP posts:
QuintessentialShadows · 04/05/2012 19:03

my spell checker made bluebells into blueberries, lol!!!

Springforward · 04/05/2012 19:04

YANBU.

DH still recalls the massive telling off he got for taking his mum a bunch of bluebells, aged 8sih.

YoullLaughAboutItOneDay · 04/05/2012 19:04

My three year old knows you don't pick flowers. So why a fully grown adult wouldn't beggars belief.

I am in a total grump today about all the selfish behaviour in the country though.

DerbysKangaskhan · 04/05/2012 19:10

UnCharted - good idea! Though with damaging frosts forecast for a while, it'll be a while before we can plant them around here.

Coconutty · 04/05/2012 19:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MeKathryn · 04/05/2012 19:14

Picking them doesn't do any long term harm, they come back from the bulbs next year. It is inconsiderate though.

Be very careful buying bluebells that they aren't plants/bulbs taken from the wild.

Thetokengirl · 04/05/2012 19:16

I agree with Coconutty. I would have had an MN rant at the Mum.

samandi · 04/05/2012 19:16

YADNBU. It's extremely selfish and inconsiderate behaviour. English bluebells are protected and picking them puts them even more at risk.

sugarice - It's not illegal to pick the flowers in England and Wales, but digging up the bulbs is. Both are illegal in Scotland.

Psammead · 04/05/2012 19:18

Even my toddler knows that some flowers (daisies and dandelions) are for picking and the rest are just for looking.

Common courtesy, unless they are in your own garden!

Seabright · 04/05/2012 19:19

Also, there is a country belief that if you pick bluebells the pixies will come and steal your children.

Psammead · 04/05/2012 19:20

Oh!

I'm off bluebell picking Grin

EdithWeston · 04/05/2012 19:20

It is illegal to pick the English native bluebell, and certain other specified endangered species.

AgnesBligg · 04/05/2012 19:28

Most Bluebells we see aaround now aare a thuggish Spanish variety. Awful that the kids were allowed to pick our lovely native ones - assuming NT ones would be.

MeKathryn · 04/05/2012 19:29

It isn't illegal. This is what the woodland trust say

Can you pick them?

Native bluebells are protected against sale by law. This means it?s illegal to dig up the bulbs from the wild in order to sell them.

In fact if you don?t own the land it is illegal to dig up the bulbs for any purpose

However In England and Wales it is possible pick the leaves, flowers or seeds for your own use but in Scotland you can be charged for doing this.

But the flowers are unlikely to survive long enough for you to take home and put in water, so advice is that if you don?t need to pick the bluebells leave them where they are so everyone can enjoy them.

fussbucket · 04/05/2012 19:29

I hate it when people pick anything wild in the countryside, I planted some native english narcissus deep in the woods to mark the place where we scattered some ashes, two years in a row now some bugger's picked the lot.

Original poster
Abra1d · 04/05/2012 20:03

:( Fussbucket.

OP posts:
Mishy1234 · 04/05/2012 20:06

I agree, it's extremely selfish. I never allow the children to pick wild flowers. They should be enjoyed in situ and left for other people to see. I think it's an important message to pass to children that wild flowers are there to be looked at, not picked!

Mishy1234 · 04/05/2012 20:07

That's awful Fussbucket.

GrimmaTheNome · 04/05/2012 20:08

Picking bluebells may not be illegal and may not harm them; but in order to do the picking I bet those kids trampled on them. This is harmful to the plant - it needs its leaves undamaged if it's going to be able to flower next year.

TheUnMember · 04/05/2012 20:10

'It is illegal to pick the English native bluebell, and certain other specified endangered species.'

No it isn't Edith. It is illegal to dig up the bulbs and it is illegal to sell them. But it is lawful to pick the flowers and leaves for personal use.

Sallyingforth · 04/05/2012 20:13

I don't care whether it's legal or not. Those flowers are part of our diminishing natural habitat, and are enjoyed by everyone. To allow their kids to pick them is just fucking selfish and I would have told them so.

ChippingInLovesEasterEggs · 04/05/2012 20:13

Fussbucket :( I'm really, really sorry to hear that.

Abra - YANBU some people are just so very bloody selfish. Where did you go, I was just wondering if there were any nice ones to go and look at or if the weather had killed them all off!

vigglewiggle · 04/05/2012 20:26

I thought it was illegal if they were cultivated, the digging up bulbs bit only applied to wild flowers. I would have thought NT counts as cultivated.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 04/05/2012 20:52

YANBU.

Btw, frosts at this time of year are very unlikely to harm bluebells. We had some at the bottom of our garden, and even when they flowered early and it snowed late one year, they were fine. So it's not necessarily the case you might as well pick them because there's a frost forecast.

MrsSnow · 04/05/2012 21:06

YANBU at all.

It really annoys me when people pick all the daffodils from the park - they are for everyone to enjoy.