Bothered by Bluebells
I have been battling bluebells ever since I arrived in Seattle. I can remember eagerly seeing the leaves emerging from the soil during my first spring — I thought they were hyacinths. Within a week, I was thinking, “Gosh, I am going to have a lot of hyacinths!” But you guessed it: all of my hyacinths turned out to be bluebells.
Although the name “bluebell” may bring to mind springtime woodland settings carpeted in nodding, fragrant flowers, everything about this plant is disappointing. The shiny foliage flattens out as if in a hard rain, the unscented lavender bells are skimpy on a too-long stalk, then the bloom stalk turns brown and resists yanking.
But worse than their appearance is the way bluebells proliferate. They can take over entire garden beds in a couple of years, smothering more desirable plants.
When I looked online for solutions to my bluebell problem, I learned quickly that we share this problem with British gardeners — which seems somehow classy. Their native bluebells have been threatened with invaders and hybrids. Someone in the UK has advised us to pour boiling water on bluebells to kill them. But taking my shiny kettle outdoors to douse a plant in boiling water seems not quite “cricket” to me.
Instead, I attack my bluebells with a hori hori or even a shovel when the bulb is deeper than the blade of my soil knife. When I use a garden fork, invariably I see the leaves appearing to sink as I bring up a forkful of soil since it is hard to gauge where and how deep the bulb is. One year I resorted to laying out a tarp and digging out 10 inches of soil to remove all of the bulbs. The sheer mass of bulbs hardened my resolve to rid my garden of bluebells once and for all. But despite a pre-emptive bluebell digging session a couple of weeks ago, darned if I don’t see more popping up amid the daffodils.
About the author: Karen Holt Luetjen has been a food-related educator through her work for Seattle Tilth and WSU Extension, and is currently coordinating a conference on urban agriculture scheduled for October at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture. Contact her atkhluetjen@msn.com.
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I loved this article Karen! I felt the same way when I saw all these lovely proliferating plants popping up. Now I view them with much less joy.
Karen, I wished I’d known you were working on this article when you came over the other day! I too have tried to “cleanse” an area of bluebells before replanting…spending every summer eve on a couple beds for many weeks! And alas…they’ve returned but are weakened. One theory I’m experimenting with when they come up right next to a plant I don’t want to injure, is that I’m cutting off the leaves with the hopes that over time it will weaken the bulb. But, it probably just makes me feel good to cut them off at soil level and may do nothing in reality!