Add some blue to your late winter / early spring garden with Spanish bluebells

Hyacinthoides hispanica (Spanish bluebells)

Around this time of the year a nearby town called Kyneton hosts a daffodil festival. The cooler climate that the area provides really suits daffodils and as such lots of people have them growing in their gardens. That being the case another bulbous plant commonly known as the bluebell has to take a back seat to the Narcissus plants.  It flowers at the same time as daffodils and jonquils and planted in mass is quite spectacular.

Hyacinthoides hispanica or Spanish bluebells are native to an area known as the Iberian Peninsula which as expected contains the Spanish coastline and other nearby regions. They are dead easy to grow and as with many other bulbs they are extremely hardy specimens. I have seen them growing in extremely dry locations such as under an archway where almost no rain would fall. In England they have hybridized with Hycacinthoides non-scripta and the resulting plant is quite invasive. In Melbourne this isn't the case and they are a great addition to your other bulbous plants.

After they finish up for the year let them die back and try to resist cutting back the browning foliage. If you leave the foliage to die back the bulbs will benefit and draw energy from the leaves. This energy will assist in the next years bloom. If left in place they will naturally propagate themselves and you should get more and more each year. If you get too many simply dig up some of the unwanted bulbs.