Hyacinthoides hispanica Rose Queen

The Hyacinthoides hispanica Rose Queen, is a lovely form with pale pink flowers of a botanical species commonly called Spanish Bluebell or Spanish Squill. The latter is often confused with the Common Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), native to our woodlands. It is a perennial bulb that offers a very beautiful spring flowering, in the form of pink and trailing bell-shaped flowers that emerge from a clump of large strap-shaped leaves, displaying a beautiful fresh and shiny green colour. Easy to grow in partial shade, very hardy and very tolerant, it will easily naturalize in ordinary soil that is not too dry.

The Endymion hispanicus, another accepted name for the Spanish Bluebell, is a bulbous plant from the Asparagaceae family (subfamily Hyacinthaceae), native to southwestern Europe and North Africa. Its natural habitat corresponds to forest edges, fallow land, and deciduous woodlands (beech, oak, and chestnut), always in partial shade and in soils that remain somewhat moist. It is a prolific species, widely naturalized in France, where it competes and hybridizes very easily with our Common Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta), which enjoys the same environments. In some regions, it even tends to supplant it.

Anchored on a tall and narrow bulb, deeply embedded in the soil, the Rose Queen Spanish Bluebell multiplies through numerous stolons, eventually forming dense clumps of lanceolate leaves measuring 20 to 50 cm (8 to 20in) long and 3 to 4 cm (1 to 2in) wide at the base, wider than those of the Common Bluebell. The flowering stems emerge from late April to June depending on the climate. They rise 30-40 cm (12-16in) and bear clusters of 4 to 16 delicate pink flowers, bell-shaped with slightly flared rims, little or not at all recurved at their tips. The flowers are distributed around the stem, unlike those of the Common Bluebell, which are all positioned on the same side of the stem. The flowering gives way to globose fruits, while the leaves wilt on the ground. The seeds are released when all the aerial parts have dried up. Naturalizing both through its trailing rhizomes and spontaneous seedlings, the Spanish Bluebell is capable of covering the ground of an entire woodland.

The Rose Queen Spanish Bluebell offers the magnificent spectacle of its flowering, planted en masse, in the wilder areas of the garden, where it can spread freely. It will be perfect for edging a shaded path or beautifying the ground under a cluster of deciduous bushes. It will accompany with its fresh pink colour the blue flowering of the wild form, enhance the flowering of apple and cherry trees, composing a magnificent spectacle in spring, at little expense. It can also be associated with euphorbias as well as sturdy bulbs such as late single tulips (white, mauve) and botanical narcissus. Its flowers are also very beautiful in country bouquets.