type of white bluebells? hybrid or spanish?

anyone able to help identify my white bluebells please? We moved into this house fairly recently and have been doing a lot to the garden but having been told there were lots of bluebells I have carefully gardened round them all and they are starting to come out now. they don't look like native ones to me based on my googling but I didn't even know there were white ones until now so have no idea. Are they hybrid ones or spanish ones and if they are spanish ones then are we ok to keep them or should we get rid of them in order to stop them taking over from native ones. am I making sense or talking rubbish?

thanks

 

If they are only about 6" tall, I would say they were Scilla siberica Alba. If about double the size then Scilla campanulata ( Hyacinthiodes hispanica ) the dreaded Spanish Bluebell.

 

dont' know - didn't look at their height. will have to go and look now, I want to know

thanks

 

I don't think they are particularly tall but it is dark now so will have to look in the morning. I do hope they aren't spanish ones. I will be really disappointed if they are

 

The spanish ones have strap like leaves about an inch wide. They really are sturdy plants.

 

ah no definitely not then.

thats a relief. so how come the siberian ones aren't a threat in the same way as the spanish ones? just because they aren't as sturdy?

thanks

 

You can certainly get Spanish Bluebells in white and also in pink. I ruthlessly got rid of mine quite some time ago. Simply because they are pretty invasive in my garden (forget our native woodlands), and they produce a lot of leaves that last for a long time, take up space and do nothing. They also prevent other border plants from developing.

 

That`s right, the Siberian ones are about the same size as the English ones Scilla non-scripta.

 

I would say that this is the white form of Scilla sibirica. They are much smaller than the native Bluebell and flower a lot earlier. Ours have finished and are setting seed now whereas the Bluebells are not in flower yet.

 

ok I think they are siberian ones then looking at the sizes of the plants and the leaves. they look very pretty (even if they are halfway across the lawn as well as in the flowerbed) and we have loads of empty flowerbed still to fill with whatever we want to so I will leave them be if they aren't threatening ones.

this gardening thing is quite addictive really, I just like flowers and pretty things and know nothing but now I am getting into it more I am very particular about only wanting things that we 'should' have and trying to get things that seem to grow naturally round here.

thanks for your help

 

I have some of these white ones as well as the native bluebells that we bought from a mail order company in Spalding at the same time as we got our snowdrops and I quiet like the white ones as they are more colour in the garden plus the insects like them:yess:Ours are just starting to come out in flower so looking forward to having them in bloom now that the Aconites and snowdrops are best their best

 

Dunno if I right, or if it helps, but I think that English bluebells carry their flower on one side, whereas Spanish carry flowers all around the stalk.

 

I used to have something that looked like a white bluebell at my old house.
Whenever you brushed past or stood on em you got a really strong garlic smell, I thought it was a wild garlic but never dared try it.

D

 

thanks everyone. they definitely aren't native ones as the flowers are all round but some of them are pretty tall so must be imposters and some of them are much smaller. only some have come out, others look to be a little way off flowering yet so I think we must have a bit of a mix of hybrid ones, spanish ones and siberian ones from the looks of things.

interestingly I looked in my parents garden this morning (they moved last week to nearby us) and they seem to have a lot of tall white ones as do other houses round here. all 1930s houses, wonder if it was a bit of a trend for planting them at some point (along with the sunken gardens, raised flowerbeds and strange rockeries....)