Mystery bulb. Walking around the 'hood I passed a front garden where various plants had been left on the front wall including these bulbs. It has become a custom (round here at least) that if someone has something they wish to dispose of they leave it on the street and invariably a passer by gathers it up to put it to use. An informal and effective form of recycling which seems to extend to plants as well.

 I'm pretty sure these are Hyacinthoides hispanica aka Spanish Bluebell. They have a bigger bulb than our native H. non-scripta, grow taller and straighter with bell shaped flowers of a bluer hue than the Bluebells of our ancient woods. I planted them in a spot at the base of a shady section of the fence/ivy hedge so I'll see what results. Assuming they are Spanish Bluebells they will add to a number that were already in the garden when I moved in. As I am planting them 'in the green' they will probably not flower this year and take a year or two to settle in.

 I should note at this point that H. hispanica has a very bad rep among conservationists. It is said to hybridise with native Bluebells to their detriment. Indeed the hybrid of the two H. x massartiana is what the bulb trade has sold as Bluebells for a very long time; I would think they account for virtually all Bluebells in gardens. The characteristics of H. hispanica dominate, for example the hybrid is scentless. There is considerable angst that it will further hybridise with H. non-scripta.

 Having said that the Spanish Bluebell is a worthy plant in its own right which has been grown in this country for centuries. Variations on the Hyacinthoides genus occur on both the Southern European and North African sides of the Mediterranean in addition to H. non-scripta in northern France, Belgium and the UK. Interestingly recent research suggests that native Bluebells have much greater resistance to cross pollinating than has been supposed.

 Even so I wouldn't plant H. hispanica next to a Bluebell wood or in a rural setting. In central London that is not really an issue. The nearest extant colony of native Bluebells is in Abbey Wood about ten miles away. As far as I can see they are not mutating despite being surrounded by the metropolis. 

Narcissus 'February Gold' and Crocus tommasinianus.

Spring arrives on the allotment.

NB These are Narcissus 'February Gold' living up to their name.

 Wild plants are starting to flower even in February but you have to look closely. Red Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) is one of the first. It forms low growing mats and the flowers are tiny. None the less it is an important bee plant because it flowers so early and for most of the year.  

 Three storms have buffeted this island in quick succession bringing gale force winds and driving rain. London got a pounding judging by the news but I was at the ancestral home in Hertfordshire. A tree in next door's garden came down but it was pretty much dead already- the greenery is Ivy. 

 Actually that bears out a point I made a few weeks ago [1st. February]. Ivy doesn't kill healthy trees but the additional weight and wind profile of Ivy on a dead or dying tree might be more than it can bear.

 Anyway I got the bow saw out and the loppers...

 A forest of Teasels (Dipsacus fullonum). A common enough wild plant but less common to see so many in one area. Teasels are biennial and die after flowering but the dried out stems and seed heads stand tall into the winter months. In the first year of growth D. fullonum puts out a rather prickly rosette of leaves; I saw a good many at ground level which will form another forest. 

 Is this a "tiny forest"? Seen near Ickleford in Hertfordshire: a multitude of saplings, bare root 'whips' planted out with plastic tubing to protect them from being eaten by deer. Tiny forests are a concept developed by Japanese botanist Akira Miawaki in the 1970s. The idea is to use native species to create a dense fast growing woodland on a very small scale.

 I'll be fascinated to see how this one develops in the years ahead because I have some reservations about the methodology. When forests generate or regenerate naturally the process of natural selection has the effect of spacing and layering new growth. Some schools of thought like forest gardening set out to mimic nature with canopy, understory and ground level species. Planting trees very close together will result in an impenetrable thicket and no doubt such pockets can be a good thing. But I can't help thinking a wider spacing is preferable?

 Then again many of the typical species of a native hedge will grow into trees if left to their own devices but are suitable to merge together as a single mass. Perhaps a tiny forest is an enormous hedgerow?