Cheshire Bluebell Recovery Project

The Cheshire Bluebell Recovery Project was set up in 1996 in direct response to the increasing loss of one of our most beautiful woodland wildflowers.
The native English bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, is suffering a decline across the UK due to threats which include loss of woodland habitat, wild bulbs being dug up for sale as well as damage to them by the trampling of leaves and hybridisation with the non-native Spanish bluebell Hyacinthoides hispanica.
Cheshire Wildlife Trust, alongside The Mersey Forest and RECORD have taken the lead in helping to promote the English bluebell within Cheshire. This unique project has helped to conserve the native bluebell by propagating thousands of new bulbs from local provenance seed at Barrowmore Estate over the last six years.
Funding from the landfill communities funds of Waste Recycling Group Ltd (administered by WREN), the Linley Shaw Foundation, The Mersey Forest and Cheshire West and Chester Council has given the project a boost to continue propagation and now plant these bulbs into local community woodlands across the Cheshire region over the next two years.
To find out more about the Cheshire Bluebell Biodiversity Action Plan visit www.cheshire-biodiversity.org.uk.