On Fri, 14 May 2004 09:13:11 +0100, Spidey wrote:

About five years ago a friend gave me some excess bluebells which were
taking over her garden. I planted a clump at the base of each tree in
our orchard.

This year one of the clumps has pink flowers. It is planted at the base
of a Bramley which has never been healthy - it grows a few leaves at the
end of each branch, but never flowers.

I am suspecting there is a localised problem with the soil. All the
other trees are doing fine and all have blue bluebells underneath. Any
suggestions what the problem might be?

We have had masses of bluebells (the Spanish type) at the base of
three or four birch trees for many years. I don't know when they
started to change, but most of them are pink now, with a few white
ones showing up here and there. Thankfully we do not have a nearby
population of native bluebells, as neighbours also have the Spanish
type, so even if I destroyed all of ours it would be of little
advantage. I would hate to think we were the cause of hybridising and
so losing native ones.

Regards, VivienB