squirrels attack!

I've had a disaster with the small bulbs. The squirrels got into the cellar and decimated them. Here are the vases from October 19th  and most of them are empty.

crocus and tulip vases

The bulbs that survived do have decent roots on them.

roots of small bulbs

I had a few spare small bulbs which I was going to plant in these rose bowls, maybe with glass nuggets, but now I will put them in the now empty vases.

rose bowls

An update on the hyacinth bulbs in the bulb bowls, there are masses of roots. If I try to lift the bulbs to check on them they are immovable as there are so many roots. One bulb has some roots growing above the lid. I tried pushing them into the bowl but they just break off. Hyacinth roots can be quite brittle. Best to break off the errant roots so the bulb doesn't waste too much energy on them.

hyacinth bulbs on bulb bowl lid

Below are the empty flower troughs. The squirrels had a real feast. I may get some more bulbs to replace them. The boxes of small crocus and tulips from Sainsburys are quite reasonable. It will be too late to get them to bloom for Christmas but would hopefully have blooms sometime in January.

Shorter troughs

I seem to have a number of mouldy bulbs this year. I usually only have the odd one. I've turned this one over to show how mouldy it is. I rinsed the mould off and put it back. I did notice that it also has damage on the side. I was wondering if the damage caused the mould or vice versa.

damaged hyacinth bulb

mouldy hyacinth bulb