The first bluebells to flower in Bottom's Corner
Every so often in July or August, when the bluebell seeds in our bit of ancient woodland are ripe, we collect some and spread them in the new plantation – Bottom’s Corner. This hasn’t been in any way scientific and we haven’t recorded anything. For the first time, flowering bluebells have appeared in Bottom’s Corner this spring. Exciting stuff.
Of course it may have happened by some other means than our efforts, but even so it could be the beginning of colonisation by other species that grow in the old wood – dog’s mercury, primrose, wild garlic, wood anemone. We can hope. Natural spread is famously slow so perhaps we were the cause.
Some would argue that the creation of a new woodland has little meaning and that spreading wild flowers ourselves doesn’t have any value. Clearly a new wood has less value than a similar sized wood of some centuries age. However, an old wood is just a new wood with lots of time added; or is that too simplistic?