Spain Invaders

 

It was probably about 10 years ago that I planted a group of bluebells beside the pyracantha bush in the garden. Everyone likes to see bluebells, right? These bulbs may have been a gift, or perhaps a spur-of-the-moment purchase during a garden centre visit; I can't remember. 

They turned out to be bluebells of the Spanish species but all was well for a couple of years and the splash of blue in May was a delight and the dying foliage, come June, was good fodder for the compost heap.

Then they began to spread: they expanded out from the wall towards the lawn. Fine I thought; more colour! But soon the penny dropped that the encroachment wasn't going to stop and the new specimens had to be dug up each year to keep them under control. Also I took to tearing out the leaves after flowering to starve the bulbs of the energy to replicate: in effect cutting their supply lines.

At this point I become aware of the danger of hybridisation of the Spanish with the native (wild) bluebells and begin to feel guilty about facilitating the release of alien pollen into the air to pollute our beautiful native species. Spanish bluebells began to look crass in comparison with the delicate drooping British variety.

Then I noticed bluebells start to appear in remote places in the garden. "I know", I think. "I'll stop the seeds spreading by removing them before they mature." Fortunately bluebell stalks, like grape hyacinth stalks, can easily be pulled out, leaving the leaves and bulb behind. So each year I rigorously removed them once the flowers had died back and put them in the green bin for the council to compost.

This made no difference whatsoever! More and more clumps started appearing here, there and everywhere. It was like paratroopers covertly securing enclaves of territory. Startlingly there is no sign of them at all until about April, when the leaves emerge followed closely by flower heads. So it's hard to spot new outbreaks until the flower stalks pop up. 

I've now had to resort to total warfare: pull flower heads as soon as the blue colour starts fading; dig up bulbs wherever possible - go deep where the leaves are sprouting and pick out the hated white bulbs, squishing the tiny ones between my finger and thumb, binning the rest. It's a major problem that the outbreaks sometimes occur under a peony, right next to a smoke bush, or in the middle of a clump of crocuses or perennial geraniums. Sometimes containment, rather than eradication, is the only approach.

This campaigning is taking a significant and increasing amount of gardening time each year, and before the decade is out, it may have become a full-time job and perhaps will need reinforcements or a scorched earth policy...