Quite a lot of the daffodils round here have gone over, but some of the later ones still in flower. Our bluebells are starting, and passing another bluebell wood yesterday, they are quite obviously starting. Dark royal blue at the moment, but they go lighter as time passes. More and more wood anemones, wild garlic leaves up, but not seen any flowers; they tend to come a bit later with us, usually after or towards the end of the bluebells.
What causes a few wild bluebells to be white,i have often found a clump over the years?
Jam Lady
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 2501 Location: New Jersey, USA
Posted: Wed Apr 10, 19 12:31 pm Post subject:
Ty Gwyn, most likely a recessive gene so must come from both parents. If one provides white and the other blue the offspring have blue flowers.
In the Rocky Mountain lupines bees prefer the blue flowers so it is selected for.
The odd bit I remember from a genetics course is that chickens have a dominant white (only one parent needs to provide the gene) and a recessive white (both parents must provide the gene.) So if there is a cross between a dominant white and recessive white there will be some color feathered chicks. Cool!
We get a few white flowers every year, but not noticeably the same ones. They don't seem to spread, so just the odd on here and there. A professional gardener told me that his pink ones seemed to spread, but in our garden the white ones stay white and the blue ones blue, although the blue ones there do contain some Spanish stock. We do our best to keep the ones in the wood pure British.
Saw a weasel or stoat run across the track up to the woods yesterday, and found a large patch of violets in flower, several feet across by about a foot deep. Some early purple orchids are starting to come up to flower, but some are in the same state as 3 weeks ago. Found some wood sorrel in flower, and some twayblade just coming into leaf.
our EPO s are just starting to colour up, im not sure if they were planted or are wildings but several of the flood defences have quite extensive patches.
re bluebells, english native type.
the ones i know best are in west yorkshire, the standard colour is " bluebell blue " but some are darker and slightly more purple. there are both white and pink variations.
from what i recall of long term changes both pink and white are less vigorous than blue and get squeezed rather than expanding their patch.
back in the olden days when collecting was not seen as a problem the pink and white were favoured as garden plants which added to the pressure on them.
iirc as garden plants pink and blue keep true colour but spread more slowly than the blue variation.
the big southern european type are quite invasive once they get loose in a bluebell wood as they both squeeze by vigour and iirc hybridise with the locals.
Yes, Spanish bluebell are a constant threat. If we see any that look Spanish or cross, we destroy them to stop them hybridising. You may find the colour of the bluebells depends on the time you see them; when they first open they are darker with a hint of purple. If you paint a picture of them it always includes some pink, and if you look closely at the flowers there is pink and purple in there. As they open fully and weather a bit, the colour lightens and becomes more 'bluebell blue'.
Saw the first EPOs just coming into flower yesterday, so within the next week of so must get to the best place for them and see how they are doing. The twayblade is also coming into leaf; a rather unremarkable but interesting orchid. The toothwort is also in flower in most of its usual haunts.
it is rather strange to think you are nearly 300 miles south of here and a bit further west but our flora and fauna seem to be a couple of weeks ahead in timings.
I assume Early Purple Orchid. Dpack always writes in code!
We are on a hill, and I noticed when my parents lived only a couple of miles down the road from us, their garden was up to 2 weeks ahead of ours. The woods are a little higher than our house and slightly north, and although generally south facing, the wind can be very cold.
Did some flora surveying yesterday and found a good collection including twayblade, some of which I nearly stood on. Only one early purple orchid with a flower spike just coming up, although no sign of the buds yet.
We did our first charcoal burn of the season yesterday, so were rather later in the woods than usual. I was sitting in the van reading when an adult hare went lolloping past. Husband was sitting by the kiln when a young one, probably last years leveret, came right up to him. When he turned to look at it, it shot off, but he said he saw it several times yesterday.
hares are ace, i managed to teach a saluki to notice but not give chase which made watching them much easier
bunnies got fetched , untouched but bothered, so did small or large dogs etc etc
i won't hunt them but if you can find an " unfortunate " stretch of road and check it like a trap line they are delicious
it is tragic collecting wreckage but waste not and don't kill something else for a week's dinners etc seems a dignified end for the casualty.
team pointy get a few " forcibly retired " coursing/poaching dogs, the folk who used them do not usually look after them well, i don't like that or hunting the hare, it makes me cross
i recon bunnies are fair game if taken kindly by hound or other means, that might seem odd to most folk but i know why i feel like that.
tribbles sah , fousands of em . eating everything in sight.
Talking about rabbits,this last week or so I have noticed 3 black young rabbits around the back of the barn,i often see one in the field but never seen 3 so close to the buildings.
They are probably offspring of an escaped domestic rabbit, although sometimes melanistic (?) animals do occur, but not heard of it in rabbits. Not sure if I have mentioned it before, but one place I worked, we had multicoloured rabbits as they were a mix between wild and escaped domestic rabbits from the surrounding estate.