Bluebells by Rosemary Morris

To learn more about Rosemary and her books please click the image above.

Bluebells

Blessed with a vivid imagination, at the back of my mind I have an idea for a garden which plays a prominent part in a novel so I’ve been jotting down ideas. Like me, my heroine will rejoice when spring arrives, and she welcomes the blaze of colour from crocus, daffodils and narcissi. This month I welcome bluebells, enchanting flowers that bloom in gardens and beneath canopies of woodland trees.

As a child I buried my face in bunches of these fragrant flowers which I gave to my mother. Arranged in vases their bewitching scent seemed to cast a spell.  I remember picking bluebells which filled a room with bewitching perfume when my mother arranged them in a vase.one of many names for bluebells is ‘fairy flower’.

‘Fairy flowers’ are one of many nicknames for bluebells. In my fertile imagination I visualise them imagine their sweet perfume casting a spell over people walking in woodland. Folk law claims a carpet of bluebells in full flower indicates a magical place where fairies live. If I close my eyes, in my mind’s eyes I can see a delightful picture of a bluebell flower fairy.

According to legend, fairies are reputed to cast spells on the flowers left to dry if they are disturbed. Long ago children were told that if they picked bluebells they would be spirited away, and adults would be fated to wander forever in the woods. If an unlucky person heard the fairies ring bluebells when they gathered, he or she would soon die. A reason to nick name the flowers ‘dead men’s bells’.

Bluebells are toxic to those ancient myths discouraged people from touching them.  About half of the world’s bluebells grow in the U.K, and usually inhabit four-hundred years or more woodland. Not only do we look admiringly at them they attract bees, butterflies, and hoverflies. .