The April ‘whims’ are still absent for the time being. An advantage of the dry, sunny period is that the wood anemones continue to bloom beautifully and the flowers are not damaged by heavy rain showers. More and more bluebells are blooming on the plateaus and in a number of places a purple-blue colour is appearing in the forest. Many bluebells have yet to start blooming here too. And of those that are already blooming, not all the flowers in the inflorescence are open yet and the flower stems still have to stretch. As a result, there is no deep blue-purple carpet of flowers in the forest yet. The flanks of the valleys that receive less direct sunlight per day are still green, covered by the long, narrow, dark green bluebell leaves. In the meantime, along the lighter edges, greater stitchwort and garlic mustard are blooming. The leaves of herb-paris are already visible with the flower bud on a stem in the middle. We still have to wait a few days to see the beautiful flower appear. The inflorescence, a slender light green spadix, of ‘lords-and-ladies’ is also visible but not yet ready to attract pollinators. This weekend, the first free shuttle buses will run between Halle station and the forest (more info here). Even though the bluebells are not yet in full bloom, it could already be busy. If you have the opportunity, it is better to come and enjoy the spring colours in the forest on a sunny weekday.
