We live in a really remote place – just about as far from anywhere as it’s possible to get in the UK. In fact, if you go any further you end up in the Atlantic Ocean. Not only that but there is only one direction in which you can come and go from Cornwall without flight or ships, you have to come across the Tamar from Devon. This brings both fantastic things and some pretty duff ones too.

This photo is one of the fabulous things that we have in Cornwall but that are becoming as rare as hens’ teeth elsewhere in the UK. It’s a Hyacinthoides non-scripta. Whaddayamean rare? I hear you cry as one. Well think about this – when was the last time you saw one that had this habit? (The fact that it’s nodding over like a little fairy slide, rather than standing upright with the flowers all around the stem.)

You see, they are, without even knowing it, engaging in unsafe sex – that is sex with a closely related species, Hyacynthoides hispanica – the bluebell that stands upright with its flowers all around its stem. Of course flower sex is quite unlike sex between mammals – they don’t actually get “up close and personal” with another bluebell – that’s be silly wouldn’t it? It could only happen if plants could walk and despite the road signs (heavy plant crossing), that’s not common in plants! Their sex requires a third party, usually a winged insect, that spreads pollen around between different plants. When the insect spreads pollen from a H. hispanica to a H. non-scripta or vice versa, hybrids occur and the pure bred British bluebell is disappearing faster than you can say “unsafe sex”. It is a protected species but it can't be protected from its own relatives.

It’s because we are so cut-off from the rest of the UK that our plants are largely unaffected BUT H. hispanica is coming. It’s already in our garden (not put there by us) so there can be no logical conclusion other than more hybrids and fewer pure-breds. So, take a peek at the real deal and remember its passing.