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Gardening

Free native bulbs to plant.

(7 Posts)
tanith Mon 17-Oct-16 09:57:26

I just saw this on the BBC news website and just thought it might be useful to someone, they giving free bulbs at certain heritage sites there isn't one near to me but instead I've ordered some English Bluebell bulbs from Amazon cost was £7 for 50.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37674872

Hilltopgran Mon 17-Oct-16 10:22:47

I have bought the native Daffodil in the green for the last 3 years to plant in spring. They are a wonderful sight, they flower in March. A number of bulb companies offer them online. The native Welsh Tenby Daffodil is also available, which is slightly darker in colour. I have planted the natives in a wilder area of the garden so they are naturalising well.

I visited Dora's field near Rydal when the daffs were in full bloom a few years ago, and it was a wonderful sight, I do hope the effort to promote their survival is successful.

Badenkate Mon 17-Oct-16 10:53:51

I noticed Homebase are selling English bluebells as well.

granjura Mon 17-Oct-16 12:36:23

It would be great for those companies, especially those selling cheap- to have to put the provenance on the packets. Some parts of Eastern Europe are being stripped bare of their wild flowers for sale in the UK and Western Europe.

I love the late flowering pheasant eye narcissi- so fragrant. When I was a kid growing up here in the Jura, there used to be fields and fields of them, and also the small native yellow daff. Very rare as modern farming had them all grubbed up int he 60s and 70s to replace (and the Trades Description act should make the term illegal imho) so called 'improved grassland'.

Badenkate Mon 17-Oct-16 19:02:00

I used to love walking through the small corn fields in the Aargau with all the flowers. I have to admit I had never thought that cornflowers were called that because they grew in corn. The blues of the cornflowers together with the red poppies and the gold corn was absolutely beautiful.

Wobblybits Mon 17-Oct-16 19:05:21

Careful what you wish for with bluebells, they are thugs, ours took over the garden. They are so deep rooted that they are difficult to eradicate.

tanith Mon 17-Oct-16 19:15:49

Wobblybits I'd be quite happy for them to spread, my garden is a bit of a wild work in progress. I keep the lawns cut and shrubs trimmed and weeds kept in check but otherwise its a little wild and I like it that way. I have a large group of the Spanish bluebells which I don't like so intend on getting rid of them and replacing with the English ones..