Tags
blackthorn, bluebells, Bugle, common backswimmer, Common Frog, coppice, early purple orchids, great crested newt, Herb-Robert, Lesser Celandines, primroses, Reydon Wood, Suffolk, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, sweet violets, walking, water-violet, wild strawberry, wildflowers
I love bluebells, as you no doubt have realised by now, and I don’t think I am alone in my love of these flowers. There is a scene in the film ‘Howard’s End’ that has one of the main characters walking through a bluebell wood – I find it very moving.
We try to visit a bluebell wood each Spring and this year we re-visited Reydon Wood on a beautiful Thursday afternoon in early May.
Last year we mistimed our visits, with one visit a little too early and another a little too late. This visit was ‘just right’.

I peeped through the bars of a gate from the path and saw my first bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta).

Sweet Violets (Viola odorata) were growing at the side of the path, as were Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) and Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) but my photos of them were over-exposed.

There is a very deep ditch between the path and the wood (you can see the far bank of the ditch at the bottom of the photo)
The ditch was originally dug many centuries ago in an attempt to keep deer out of this coppiced wood. The bottom of the ditch may have had heaps of brush-wood in it as well as water to make crossing it more difficult.
Both Celandines and Primroses had already flowered and gone to seed in the lanes near to my home, but the woods are darker, cooler places and the plants flower later and last longer.

Early Purple Orchid (Orchis mascula) Unfortunately not in focus, though you can clearly see its spotted leaves.

Large amounts of brushwood have been stacked around an area that has been newly coppiced in an effort to keep the deer (and people, I expect) away from the new shoots growing from the stools.
Here is a gallery of photos of the bluebells in Reydon Wood.
Thanks for visiting!