When I was asked by Sylvia to write about Bluebells, I was intrigued and so set about finding as much information as I could. As most people in the UK who are Gardeners will tell you – the UK has been inundated with Spanish Bluebells, sometimes to the detriment of the traditional English Bluebell! Whilst this has not really been of any concern to me, I can understand the purists amongs us who would rather the Spanish variety move back to where they belong…
I thought I would first find out the main differences between the two varieties….the English one is on the right:
The Spanish bluebell has many similarities to the English species but also some differences
The flowering stem of the Spanish species is more upright and is often straight.
Flowers are found on both sides of the stem instead of on only one.
The flowers are more open and less tubular than English bluebell flowers.
Anthers are blue at first and fade to green later.
The flowers lack the fragrance of English bluebells.
The blue colour of the flowers is generally less intense, colours can vary from white to purple.
Flowering stems of the Spanish bluebell are generally taller.
The leaves tend to be wider and thicker.
English bluebells prefer a semi-shaded environment while Spanish ones do well in a variety of habitats, including sunlit areas.
In Britain, the fear is that the native bluebell will be wiped out by the Spanish form and by the hybrids produced by crosses between the English and Spanish species. The destruction of ancient forests is also harming the wild plants.
One third to a half of the world’s English bluebell population is found in Britain. It’s said that no other country experiences the woodland carpets of the flowers seen in Britain. The bluebell is a protected plant in the UK. It’s illegal to dig up a bulb.
Once I had familiarised myself with the similarities and differences between the English and Spanish Bluebells, I then was in a quandary as to which flower I should portray in my Wallhanging. Of course, it was no contest as I have lived in Spain for the past 20 years now so the flower you see depicted is a Spanish Bluebell!
DESIGNING AND MAKING THE WALLHANGING
Having decided that I would make a wallhanging, I thought I would like to show my drifts of Bluebells under a stand of Birch trees. We have a wood of Birches not far from us, but unfortunately Bluebells do not live under them! So this is only in my head! I decided to use a purple Batik fabric for the flowers purely because I couldn’t find any plain blue fabric in my stash!
I used some dark green fabric for the green forest floor. Using double sided iron on BondaWeb, I fixed the tree trunks to my background fabric and then appliqued them along the edges to keep them in place.
I added the purple Batik pieces, scattered through the grass and fixed them in the same way – with the BondaWeb. To keep the purple swatches in place I randomly machine stitch through the layers, giving the impression of grasses, and stems for the Bluebells.
More of the green grass fabric was fixed to the BondWeb and then cut in to small pieces, with a Roller blade, and these were then ironed in place to look like the leaves on the trees. In order to keep them in place, and also to give the impression of branches, I machine stitched them to the background fabric. This made up the Scene I was after.
Next, came the picture of the Spanish Bluebell. I like to use Inktense PColoured Pencils so rather than cutting out the leaves and appliqueing them to the background, I drew the leaves and the flower stem directly on to the fabric, using Aloe Vera as the fixative for the colour. In order to emphasise the shadows I sewed round the leaves and the stem in two shades of green embroidery thread. I cut out the purple flowers from the same Batik as that in the main picture, ironed them in place, again using the BondaWeb, and stiched round the florets to keep them in place. I again used some of the green fabric to give the impression of the grass and sewed it to the background fabric, as before.
Once the two designs were complete I edged them in plain navy fabric. I used wadding and backing fabric as support and then bound the wallhanging with the purple Batik to bring the whole design together.
I hope you like my interpretation, and find the information about the two Bluebells useful!
Wow your piece is really interesting and now I know why I am puzzled by some blue bells looking different! Thank you Sue. The piece is really lovely. Hope you are well and safe over in sunny Spain.
Thank you Ruth, I learned new things about them too, and I enjoyed making the wall hanging. Was going to give it away – but somehow it has found its way on to my workshop wall….. xx