Why aren't bluebells always blue?

When I came to live here in 2002 there was a small clump of Spanish bluebells in the front garden which had one white flowerspike among the blue. This year the rather larger clump has nine white flowerspikes, which is roughly one more each year. They are evenly scattered through the clump, what's more, not all in one place. Over the years I have looked, idly, at other clumps in other people's gardens, and have never seen any white ones.

In the coombe there are quite a lot of native bluebells, as there should be, but there are some Spanish ones as well. I suspect that some kind soul has attempted to improve on nature in the coombe in the past, as there are a few other not-quite-native species. Daffodils and narcissi, for example, which although naturalised are definitely not the native daff. The garden bluebells. Pittosporum, that NZ import which scents the nights so strongly this time of year. A lone clump of cyclamen. There have been at least two bouts of tree planting, probably coinciding with the storm water drainage that was put in there; at the top of the coombe, the earliest planting, there are still trees, both native and non-, with support stakes either side, and down at the bottom a later session which have been given the marginally less ugly curly plastic protectors. Luckily, however, there's been more neglect than 'management' over the years.

However, I digress. A couple of years ago I noticed that one patch of native bluebells had a couple of pink flowerspikes. Not barbie pink, more a delicate mauve, but definitely not blue. And again last year; same patch, same pink bluebells in among the normal ones. This year they are there again, but now there's another four pink flowerspikes, some three feet away from the originals. I could understand a mutation spreading in one place, but a yard away seems quite adventurous.

Now green. I saw the first green caterpillar of the year today, quite well grown. There are more and more butterflies about - an orange tip last Sunday at Hessenford, for example - and quite a few crane flies. I seem to have mosquito bites on both arms, but just in case they aren't mozzies I've given Ty a dose of Frontline. It's coming up to tick season, after all, and we are going on the moors at the weekend.

I think my white jasmine is definitely dead, which is unfortunate. Poor little cutting wasn't strong enough to resist the unnaturally cold winter. On the other hand, last year I shoved half a dozen lily of the valley in here and there, and thought I had lost them all to slug attack, as they didn't really flower, just dwindled. But suddenly at an inch or two a day there are at least two in the back garden and the one in the front garden has become three!