What wild flowers have you seen?

[Mary Chambers]

But there are bluebells and bluebells.

I know it's racist to say it, but we don't want those pale Spanish things taking over, do we?

I'm sure I have both. If the Spanish ones take over I don't see what I can do about it. I am not keen on neat gardens and I let things run wild, but then I have quite a lot of space to fill and not enough physical strength to dig things out, even if I wanted to.

See Gurnemanz on celandines also. The more the better as far as I'm concerned! Same with daisies on lawns.

[Serial_Apologist]

Has anyone come across them in other parts of the UK?

Isolated clumps of white bluebells are to be found around here, occupying the same woodland and garden sites as the commoner, mostly British/Spanish hybridised types. I haven't bgeen aware of any garlicky smell associated with them, but that's probably becanse I haven't been on the sniffout for one! I'd assumed them to be a local mutation. I have also occasionally noticed bluebells with magenta flower heads, but not seen these mentioned in any book - of which I have quite a few on the subject of wildflowers.

[ardcarp]

Ah. There is a confusion. Genuine bluebells which are white-coloured do occur. The three-cornered leek/garlick is not a bluebell at all but a member of the allium (or onion) family. It just bears a passing resemblance to the bluebell's shape, i.e. with clusters of hanging flowers. You cannot miss the garlicky smell if you squeeze any part of the plant, and en masse they scent the air just like wild garlick does.

[ardcarp]

We're coming up to [what IMO is] the most glorious time for wild-flowers. Mrs A. came home very excited yesterday having seen some Warren Crocuses...very rare apparently, mainly to be seen on Dawlish Warren....where she saw them.

http://www.dawlishwarren.co.uk/Plant%20Gallery/pages/WarrenCrocus3.html

[ardcarp]

I like the way the rhythm of the more common wild flowers varies from year to year. This year where we live the primroses arrived a little late and are still in profusion as the bluebells come into their own. In other years, the primroses have all but faded away and it's bluebell plus campions that rule the roadside banks.

Later in summer it all gets less subtle as the umbellifers (cow-parsley, hemlock-water-dropwort, hogweeds and angelica) grow to great height, and make it harder to seek out the more delicate herb-roberts, cranesbills, etc.

[eighthobstruction]

....standard fare all present and correct....and jolly good....

[doversoul1]

I’ve just learned the name of this pretty but very common flower;

Greater Stitchwort

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/greater-stitchwort

[ardcarp]

Genuine wild daffodils are still to be found in a few isolated parts East Devon. Some farmers leave quite wide borders to their fields so as not to prevent them reappearing each year. They are very tiny and sometimes pop up on top of field boundaries.

[jayne lee wilson]

First few Daffodils bloomed here on 22 February, the earliest record for my garden... so they were alongside the Snowdrops, which was lovely. On 26/02, a Brimstone Butterfly (rare here anyway) was darting around the garden too!

Back out later to hack at a few more of those monstrous old Blackberries...

[oddoneout]

Wild daffodils in abundance are a memory from my Gloucestershire childhood. There were also some growing in a hedge on the boundary of one of our school fields which often managed to greet St David's Day due to the shelter and exposure to sun.
Violets and primroses very much in evidence in the grounds at work, with the scent from the violets noticeable in the very warm weather.

[gradus]

Our garden has an abundance of wild onions which can easily take over a border in one season so fast is their spread. Flower-wise we have loads of Winter Aconites and the Snowdrops spread themselves very efficiently. A little later and we'll have plenty of Alkanet despite my attempts to get rid of it. Unfortunately the Sweet Rocket that we had everywhere has declined in recent years unlike Fennel both green and bronze which sets everywhere along with Feverfew and Lemon Balm - once they get into the compost they get spread all over the beds.

[ardcarp]

Just give up grow a 'wild garden' gradus! One can always justify a semi-wilderness...we do....on environmental grounds.
Actually, I'm not quite sure what a wild onion is. Is it a particular species? And what colour flowers do they produce? If we've got them, they're probably indistinguishable among the wild everything else.

[oddoneout]

Three-cornered leek? It's a rampant invader when it finds a spot that suits - which seem to be quite a wide range of sites.

[ardcarp]

3-cornered leeks used to be described as 'rare but locally abundant' in old wildflower books. They're certainly abundant in parts of Cornwall, and I've noticed their spread elsewhere over the years. (The Cornish used to refer to them as 'white bluebells'...but of course they're nothing of the sort.)

[BBMmk2]

Great seeing some daffodils recently. Spring is coming!