On Sat, 29 Jan 2011 18:34:15 -0000, "Christina Websell"
wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 2011-01-28 15:47:16 +0000, "Jo" said:

When I moved house last year one corner of my new garden was awash with
bluebells. They looked very pretty but took up a huge amount of space
and
seemed to be marching up the garden as time went on. The area was
cleared
as part of a garden redesign but they have now reappeared in force and
have
spread all over the beds I cleared last year as well as reappearing in
the
corner. I had dug deep and removed as many of the bulbs as I could.
How else can I rid my garden of these plants or at least limit them to
one
area? It's a shame to have to remove them all, but I can't have a garden
full of bluebells and nothing else!

If they're English bluebells, dig them up and sell them.
--
Sacha

They are not likely to be, though, are they?

Tina

On the face of it, they are more likely to be the dreaded Spanish
variety but, on the other hand, if soil was shifted around as part of
a redesign then the smallest of bulbils, not to mention seed, could
have been spread around the place. Have you noticed, by the way, how
some new editions of books seem to have given up the fight in the
battle between the native and invader and simply talk about the "most
common variety" ...?

But from the OP's perspective, if they are the Spanish type, if a
small clump is left then that clump will quickly expand. If that's the
case I would look to kill them off completely and then plant some
properly sourced native stock. Chop the leaves down to ground level -
that's *really* ground level, not half an inch above - quickly to
deprive the bulbs of food or, if there's a decent clump, dig it up as
soon as the leaves appear. I found, when killing an invading patch
from next door a few years ago, that it was better to pull the leaves
(which sometimes pulled the bulb as well) as they would break off
below soil level.

Jake