Spanish bluebells -getting rid

[Hardertobreathe]

Not lived here long but discovered last year that the millions of bluebells were Spanish bluebells.
I dug and dug and, as far as I could see, there were no more bulbs.

I couldn’t believe it when huge clumps came up this year bigger and better than before. I’ve dug loads out again and there were great big fat bulbs, that were definitely not there after I dug last time, along with millions of little tiny bulbs. Am I going to have to do this every year for several years does anyone know? It means I won’t be able to plant anything or I risk having to dig it up each year to get rid of the bluebells.

It's easiest to just pull them out (stems and leaves, leaving the bulbs in the ground) after the flowers turn brown. They pull out of the ground very easily. I do it every year - have just finished pulling out mine.

I feel your pain. I'm on year 2 of digging them out. I'm planning to put some poppy seeds down in thier place.

@Kassalah but then they will just regrow next year. I’m trying to get rid of the Spanish bluebells because they hybridise our native ones and our native ones are diminishing in numbers.

@Cheesypea so we are both on year two. 🤞 we aren’t still doing this next year.

Oh I see - yes, they will come back every year if you just pull the stems and leaves out. Here's a thread on the Gardeners World forum that may be useful: forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/993941/spanish-bluebell-takeover

Thanks for that, I had been on the rhs website but that GW thread is a full on discussion on what I’m dealing with. Hopefully someone has the answer!
Thanks again.

I’m trying to get rid of the Spanish bluebells because they hybridise our native ones and our native ones are diminishing in numbers. The Spanish bluebell is vanishingly rare in the UK - all the ones we think of as "Spanish" are in fact hybrids.

Good article here

Do you live in an area where there is native English blue bells?
If you don’t then there will be no need to worry about cross breeding and you might as well enjoy the Spanish blue bells you have got.
I actually prefer the Spanish blue bell and with no woods full of native British bluebells near me I let small patches of them thrive in my garden.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48137471.amp

RHS seem to think it will be fine. By all means remove if you want but they are not going to kill off the native species

We have both types in our garden.

We have them too and I used to worry because we are less than a mile from native bluebell woodlands but having read a few articles like those above I stopped worrying and just enjoy them. I pull them up after flowering too, the leaves and stems come away easily. They come back the next year but have never spread in our garden, they always stick to the same area.

In my experience you have to keep on top of bluebells because they spread through their bulbs and by self-seeding. I dug up loads last year and just kept little islands here and there, but still quite a few popped up in other, unexpected places this spring. I will keep digging them up where I don't want them and I make sure I cut off the flowers as soon as they've faded (and dispose of them in the bin rather than my compost).

After walking through a local woodland area full of English bluebells, last year, it struck me just how random and scruffy the Spanish bluebells in our garden are.

Native bluebells are so graceful but the others just stand upright and poke out in all directions.

@MereDintofPandiculation interesting article. This is what I love about MN, so many knowledgeable people.

I do live very close to lovely woodland that has native bluebells in so I don’t want to risk contributing to any issues.

I do feel the native ones are much more attractive and, as @PickAChew described, more graceful. The ‘Spanish’ ones have taken over 1/4 of the border so I shall continue to try to eradicate them from my garden.

I’m in the first year in my new garden and we have a tonne of Spanish/hybrid bluebells in a border that I want to totally revamp. We’re also in an area with a lot of ancient forest close by so I don’t want them around here anyway. Sounds like a lot of digging then! Great 😐

I just keep at them. Dig them up when I can and don’t let them go to seed. Just because as you’ve found they can take over. I don’t think you can ever get rid of them, bu they keep under control.

I have masses of them in this little square of the garden, I like them though so let them go (along with everything else that grows with them (looks a bit scruffy though) until they die...then I’ll claim the land back.

Ah there’s some happy chooks!

After some more reading and consideration I’ve decided against trying to dig them up. It sounds futile. I just spent twenty minutes pulling them up from a 4x1m stretch of border, that’s about a third of the area they’ve invaded, I guess an hour a year to keep them under control isn’t too bad.

There’s discussion on that GW thread about burning them (rather than home compost where they’ll just grow or bin when they might grow on landfill) but I’ve put them in the council green waste bin - hopefully the higher heat of the industrial composting will do for them!

There’s discussion on that GW thread about burning them (rather than home compost where they’ll just grow or bin when they might grow on landfill) but I’ve put them in the council green waste bin - hopefully the higher heat of the industrial composting will do for them! If you pull them each year as the flowers go over, and don't let them go to seed, then the only thing you need to worry about is any bulbs that come up. So you could put all the greenery on to your compost heap and give the Council composter the bulbs.

I think there’s already seed heads developing on some of them and I don’t have the patience to filter those out this year.

Next year if I pull them earlier I’ll keep them for our garden compost! It did feel a waste. I usually motivate myself to do weeding (and lawn mowing) by mentally reframing it as “gathering goodness” for the compost heap!

I've just embraced mine. They look amazing and the bees love them
I rip a few out each year to keep their numbers flat

I've got them out of one area, only took 2 years.

@LemonViolet

I think there’s already seed heads developing on some of them and I don’t have the patience to filter those out this year.

Next year if I pull them earlier I’ll keep them for our garden compost! It did feel a waste. I usually motivate myself to do weeding (and lawn mowing) by mentally reframing it as “gathering goodness” for the compost heap!

I hate them because they absolutely choke the borders where they have spread. I got rid of them at my previous house by digging out year after year. It did take a few years but the job was never as hard as it was the first year.

They really do choke the borders Booble

I went back to have a look today and had a bit of a dig. I’m glad I did, as it had been raining I was able to see loads more tiny bulbs bright white against the dark soil. That’s obviously where I slipped up last year, I must have missed loads of tiny ones that had spent the last 12 months growing! I will keep going back through it to try and make sure I’ve got them all out so I don’t have so much to dig up next year.

Cleared mine today, not the bulbs, just the stems and foliage. Filled the entire garden waste wheely bin. I don't find they so choke the border as they are finished and removed before much else starts growing there.