HYACINTHOIDES NON-SCRIPTA

I cannot remember the first time I saw bluebells. But I can certainly recall what my mother told me about them more than 60 years ago. Bluebells, she explained, had to be treated with special care because of their delicate constitution.
My grandmother thought the same about me. They were both wrong. Bluebells, in their natural habitat, are near indestructible. The bulbs from which they grow multiply even more quickly than the rabbits with which they share our woods. But once they come to the surface, unfolding their petals, their character and condition changes. Pick a bluebell and it will soon wither and die.

Roy Hattersley shares his passion for England's bluebells: