The icy grip of winter may delay this year’s bluebell displays but the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust are hopeful that a warm and sunny April will ensure a carpet of blue in time for the Woodland Open Days.
The best time to see these jewels of our woodlands is during April and May but the peak flowering season and the number and intensity of the blooms varies from year to year, according to the weather and other factors.
Dave Vandome, Volunteer Reserve Manager at Dole Wood, said: "Bluebells are flowering later than last year at Dole Wood - but the first few were in flower two weeks before the open day - a few warm days will make all the difference."
Bluebell Woodland Open Days
Sunday 25 April - Dole Wood Open Day
10.30am - 4.30pm.
Location: south-west of the village of Thurlby, 2.5 miles south of Bourne. Grid ref: TF 094161
> Dole Wood nature reserve
Sunday 25 April - Tortoiseshell Wood Open Day
Guided walks from 2.15pm.
Location: Take the Castle Bytham road from the A1 some 3 miles south of Colsterworth. The reserve entrance is on the north side of the road, 1 mile from the A1. Grid ref: SK 963197
> Tortoiseshell Wood nature reserve
Sunday 2 May - Rigsby Wood Open Day
10.00am - 4.00pm.
Location: 1.8 miles west of Alford. Turn north towards South Thoresby at the Miles Cross Hill crossroads on the A1104. Grid ref: TF 421762
> Rigsby Wood nature reserve
 Bluebells aren’t the only wildflower to look out for on a woodland walk this spring. The exotic-looking cuckoo pint, drifts of white wood anemones, spikes of early-purple orchid and perhaps the strangely symmetrical four-leaved herb-Paris may be spotted. The woodlands will also be filled with bird song of the recently arrived warblers such as chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap.
According to Brian Eversham, chief executive of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough (BCNP) Wildlife Trust, although these native flowers have a sound strategy for reproducing en masse, this annual spectacle may be under threat from climate change: "Beautiful as bluebells might be, there is more to them than meets the eye. They can reproduce asexually, meaning they produce new plants without fertilisation through pollination. Bulbs can split off from each other and grow independently as clones. Potentially, many of the plants within a clustered population on the forest floor may be genetically identical, allowing one plant to multiply seemingly without limit, although genetically identical populations may be more prone to extinction, not having made the adaptations to survive a sudden change in conditions.
"When bluebells do produce seeds, these are large and glossy black but quite heavy, so most will fall within a few centimetres of the parent plant. This is a good strategy when living within stable habitats like woodlands - but makes it difficult for bluebells to colonise new woods, or to respond to threats like climate change.
"And as you may guess from seeing their profusion when strolling through a bluebell woodland, there may be millions of individual bluebell bulbs resting beneath the earth. If bluebells are present in these numbers in a woodland, it is a good sign that it is an ancient woodland, more than 400 years old."
You can find out about bluebell events happening across the UK on The Wildlife Trusts’ website | 
