They were the first new green of the year. We first thought they might be crocus. But to my great surprise they began producing these little blue buds all in a row. Bluebells! My first thought. I turn to my handy plant ID guide (google) and learn that English bluebells are sweeter smelling and produce yellow pollen while Spanish bluebells have blue pollen. My pollen? An almost fluorescent green. I’ve taken several samples and it is consistently not really a color you could call yellow. But it is certainly not blue. Of course, the ID sites don’t mention the color of the hybrid’s pollen, though green would follow a certain kind of logic.

Then mother texted me this picture of a wood hyacinth. This looks exactly like what I have growing in the flower bed! I even felt a little discomfort in holding the leaf when I took it up to the nursery and hyacinth bulbs are a noted skin irritant.

Some casual reading hasn’t led me to one or the other. Some forum posts would suggest the two are the same. Bluebells and hyacinth are in the same family of plants, the same family as asparagus, but they are a different genus.

Does anyone know the difference or know how I identify these?