first week in January

Quick update on the hyacinths upstairs today (6-1-2016), that Bloms Delft Blue in the Mary Gregory vase has turned out very well. (left to right, 44, 51, 71, 53, 96, 98)

I'm pleased with the White Pearl hyacinths, even though they are a bit short, on the left is an unprepared Peter Nyssen Miss Saigon.

(left to right 14, 30, 31, 3, 45)

Quick update on the hyacinths downstairs, today (4-1-2016) as everything is changing so quickly, moving along the windowsill from left to right:

1. left

2. middle

3. right

Yesterday, I've discovered a few problems today (3-1-2016). The green vase (back left) has a shrunken bulb that has sunk into the water and is rotting.

The rest of the Fairy White hyacinths are looking good.

any bulbs I have in pots with bulb fibre/compost have those small annoying black flying insects (fungus gnats) so I have banished these outside, the 2 pots on the left have a rotted hyacinth bud each so not much point in keeping them indoors, the pot on the right had 2 of the hyacinths in bloom almost spent

as well as that green vase that has a rotting bulb, the Prattware vase below right also has a bulb that is not big enough and it is falling into the water and rotting

None of the mail order bulbs is large enough to fit in some of these very wide mouth vases without possibly sinking in - bulbs do seem to shrink a bit as they grow. Back to the bins of bulbs from the garden centre! at least for the few vases needing large bulbs which I will now mark as such on my spreadsheet.

I bought these prepared White Pearl bulbs for some late vase purchases but bought too many so just had to put them in any pots to hand. They all seemed to have bulblets which I will try to grow on.

The Cirrus Hornsea bulb pot in the first pic above is also from the garden centre bins, although not sure which variety. Some of the vases upstairs also have those larger bulbs as these were recently purchased vases: Skyline on the left and Jan Bos on the right.

(I moved these vases to the radiator under the window just to get as much light as possible to photograph them on a pretty dismal January day but hyacinths should not be anywhere near a radiator!)

vases 53 (Peter Nyssen Delft Blue) and 71 (Peter Nyssen Miss Saigon)

(btw the numbers are just for my records to keep everything straight, I have labels on the bottom of each vase)

the bulbs in these vases (above and below) are not looking well at all but will await flowering

unprepared Peter Nyssen Miss Saigon on the left below looking pretty good and one of the garden centre White Pearl on the right (vases 14 and 45)

vase 46 and 45 again (not sure why I included that vase again) both with White Pearl

Peter Nyssen Miss Saigon on the left and deJager Delft Blue on the right below (vases 30 and 3)