Duncan wrote in message
..

Nor will removing a domestic quantity of bulbs. The law is an
extension of the enclosure acts and game laws, and has little to
do with conservation.

So with 60 odd million people and gawd knows how many houses, how many
Bluebells should we allow people to dig up, purely for domestic reasons.
Sorry, but the law was really introduced to prevent the comercial
explotation of wild resources, which was rife in the past. Whole areas of
woodland were dug up and every trace of the bulbs were removed, and thus
they never ever recovered.

Having walked in a few Surrey bluebell woods recently I can assure you there
are few places without the signs of hybridisation, indeed some stands seem
almost entirely hybrids.
So what's better, some "English" bluebells dug up for gardens, or imported
strains/species imported for gardens which then cross with ours and change
our Bluebell woods for ever.
(The hybrids seem lighter blue and are much more robust, standing up
straight as they do with flowers all around, our's hang their heads to one
side, the side with all the flowers.)
The sight of the carpets of Ramsons and Bluebells in the woods near the
source of the River Arun, near Dunsfold, are superb at this time and we
heard our first Cuckoo of the year out that way yesterday.

Bob

www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in
Runnymede fighting for it's existence.