March 2017

End of March and I have an unexpected bulb in bloom indoors. I bought this vase as a hyacinth vase last Autumn but realized it was too big for hyacinths but couldn't find an amaryllis bulb at that time. I guess they were sold out for Christmas. I bought one mail order with some spring plants, put it in the vase and it's looking great. I had to squeeze it in but in the last few weeks the bulb has shrunk and it's easy to remove so I was able to replace the water and add more water easily. This amaryllis is not so tall as others I've forced in vases so doesn't look in danger of toppling over as others have done. I don't know if that's the variety or time of year I'm doing this - not the usual for amaryllis indoors.

As the hyacinths wilted I just put them outside in this trug. It was too cold to do anything else. Now that it's gotten a bit warmer I have planted them all in the ground, as I do each year. The flowers are small but there's still some life left in them, see my gardenwithoutdoors site.

Then I went through my vase list and made sure each vase was properly listed and labelled, ready for next forcing season (there's some overlap with my hyacinth vase reference site (www.hyacinthvases.org.uk).

I reviewed them on the table on the patio. As soon as I go outside, the cats come! Jeffrey at the back, Bear at the front, both neighbour cats.

Victor, one of my cats.