1. My parents who were from Inverness always called bluebells wild hyacinths [Penrith, Cumbria, May 2009].

2. We used the sap of bluebells as a glue [Natural History Museum, London, May 2003].

3. Bluebells not to be taken indoors! Newbury, Berkshire [Natural History Museum, London, May 2002].

4. [I was born in 1938] My grandmother believed that it was unlucky to bring bluebells into the house, unlike my late mother-in-law, who lived only five miles away [Rolleston-on-Dove, Staffordshire, February 1998].

5. It is unlucky to take into your house … the bluebell [Ballymote, Co. Sligo, May 1994].

6. Flowers considered unlucky indoors … Bluebells – my gandmother wouldn’t have them (grandmother lived in East Sussex, and died in 1969) [Five Ashes, East Sussex, April 1983].

Images: main, Downe Bank Nature Reserve, London Borough of Bromley, April 2016; upper inset,  Bosham, West Sussex, April 2015; lower inset, London Transport poster, 1930.