The Spanish ones have much bigger flower heads which are more upright with thicker leaves and the native ones are smaller and bend over with skinnier leaves.

There is no problem with them - its just the spanish 'invaders' are seen as just that by a lot of people, invaders - they spread more rapidly and cross breed with our native ones and, in theory, we shall eventually not have any 'native' ones left.

Native Bluebells have flowers down one side of the stem only, Spanish ones have flowers all round the stem. Also Bluebells are just that Blue, not pink or mauve.

Unless they're serving cuba libre in the evenings, Bilbo, I still wouldn't be sure...

Nope Bilbo not yet, perhaps they need a drop of sangria to set them off (:0)

The problem seems to be that they are gradually replacing our native variety, because they hybridise very easily. Once you have Spanish ones in your garden, any native ones you might have had will gradually disappear. They also spread like mad, and are difficult to get rid of because although they seem easy to pull up, the bulbs often get left in the ground. Apart from all that, in the right place, I think they are ok. (Not much I can do about them really!) I think confusion arose because people thought they weren't supposed to dispose of them, but that only applies to the English variety. I just pull up the ones that appear in inconvenient places.

Sorry to hijack the original thread but I have some bluebells that need to be moved to another part of the same bed but nearer to the fence. Is now the best time to move them when they are in flower or should I wait for them to die down a bit?

Thanks everyone.....I have never planted any, now they are popping up in different places (how DO they do that?) they do have an awful lot of leaves Melchisedec.I like bluebells but think I will take them out and leave it to the woodland where they look more at home.Think you will have to leave them Littlet being a bulb,but having said that snowdrops are best moved "in the green"someone will say for sure.

They spread by seed as well, Poppylinda, so make sure to cut off the spent flowerheads before seed forms.
Littlelet, wait for the flowering to pass and then dig them up. Actually, I think you could chuck them on the compost heap and they'd grow and come up next year, but seems a bit daft to ruin the flower display this year, so wait for that to be done first.

As mentioned, once you have bluebells they are not easy to get rid of completely. I dig them out before the bulbs burrow too far down in places where they are annoying me. Many bulbs do this 'going deeper' over time to protect themselves I suppose. In answer to when to move natives. I did it while some were in bloom last year and put them in a shady border. They survived but no flowers yet.