Britain in May / Bluebells?
 

What is the weather like in the UK in May? Are the bluebells out? If so, any particular places to find them?

I remember lots of bluebells while walking in the Lake District in early May a couple of years ago. Particularly on a walk between Cartmel and Grange-over-Sands.

My memory may not be great on this but I think you'd have to go in early May/late April to see bluebells. I'll check my diaries but I can remember walking through an amazing bluebell dell at Sissinghurst Gardens in Kent and I think it was last week of April/first week of May.

We've travelled to England often in May and loved it. Sometimes near the end of the month, if it's been raising a bit, it can start getting hot and humid, which we Canadians from the west abhor. Although England at any time is wonderful.

OK - which part of the UK are you talking about?

Bluebells bloom earlier or later depending how warm/cool the Spring is. So normally Bluebells bloom several weeks earlier in the south/London than up in Scotland.

Bluebells grow in almost any English or Scottish wood with the right mix of shade and humidity (I've never seen them in Wales, but no doubt someone'll put me right).

At the right time, they're all over the place, and they'll obviously crop up in one wood when they've died down in others. It's pretty well impossible now to tell you where they'll be at their best in three months' time. If you're interested in bluebells, you'll probably be visiting gardens anyway.

If you're going to the major gardens, like Kew, Sissinghurst or the big arboretums, their websites usually tell you what's on show each week, and it might be worth checking them a week or so before. Local BBC radio station websites are often good at keeping track of when bluebells are at their best (they sometimes do this for other big floral events, so a number have tracked snowdrops over the past couple of weeks). Go to bbc.co.uk then follow to get to the local stations: Radio Kent and Radio Oxford cover a lot of the best locales.

The Woodland Trust has a bluebell guide at www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/woods/bluebellindex.htm This covers only those woods the Trust is involved with and doesn't seem to track their progression each year.