Friday Fabulous Flower - Bluebells

North America has its own version of bluebells.  Most flowers with that common name are vaguely bell shaped and dangle or hang down, a position that seems most appropriate for bumblebees.  Our particular bluebells do hang down and dangle, but the flowers are longer and more trumpet-shaped, not quite a true salverform as the flaring part of the bell is not at right angle to the tube.  This is Mertensia virginiana in the Borage family.  Most flowers called bluebells are monocots and in the lily/amaryllis family, or campanulas. The Phactors have lots of this attractive weed demonstrating that there is no sharp boundary between lawn and garden. This time of year all sorts of spring flowers are found throughout our "lawn".  

Small, economy version of Bluebell Wood

They say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, and it can be true for gardens as well.  Several years ago on a botanical geek trip that included the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Mrs. Phactor was quite taken by their Bluebell Wood, a shady expanse of large trees with an understory of solid bluebell shown here from their what's in bloom page of their webpage.

These are not the bluebells that North Americans are used to; these are actually Spanish bluebells, Hyacinthoides hispanica, and yes, this genus is more like hyacinths than our trumpet like native bluebells of the borage family.  "Bluebells" is a pretty common common name. To make a long story short, Mrs. Phactor decided to duplicate the bluebell wood, except the original is several times larger than our whole estate, so the plans had to be scaled down. Here's the result.  

OK it's not quite the same vista with only one oak tree making the "wood" and it's a different species of bluebell, H. non-scripta, English bluebells.  But given the size difference, the comparison is still favorable.  Hope the Brooklyn Botanic Garden isn't jealous. Considering that this was formerly all lily of the valley, it took some real dedicated effort to get them out and the bluebells in.  Say something nice about her bluebells.

What's in a name? They're blue and bell-shaped.

A pox on common names is certainly deserved in that they are never precise and often terribly confusing. Still people prefer a fuzzy, whuzzy, common name no matter the consequences.  While walking through our gardens, a friend asked TPP a question as a case in point, "Are those bluebells?"  Yes (In reference to image below.).  "Well, they looked a lot different in England."  How very true; how very observant. There you have it in a nutshell. There are no conventions on common names and so every flower that is blue, and nods, and is even vaguely "bell-shaped" could be called bluebells, and there are a lot of those. Here in eastern North America the so-called bluebell is a member of the borage family, Mertensia virginica. The flowers are bell-shaped in a trumpet sort of way. The English (and the closely related Spanish & Italian) bluebell is a member of the former lily family, Hyacinthoides (Scilla) non-scripta (hispanica, italica), and yes, they look rather like a hyancinth (Hyacinthus), and both genera are now in the asparagus family.  There are also Scottish bluebells, Texas bluebells, desert bluebells, and Australian bluebells (TPP thinks. Maybe a reader can confirm.)  All in different genera, all in different families, and it still doesn't stop because TPP once saw grape hyacinth (Muscari), which is neither grape nor hyacinth, labelled a bluebell, a very apt description, but not a very apt common name.