hyacinths in bloom on New Year's Eve

The black and white vases have Caribbean Dream hyacinth bulbs, the bulb bowl Blue Star hyacinths and the uranium Rimac Fancy vase on the left a Delft Blue hyacinth.

a few days later and those Blue Star hyacinths are fully in bloom

forced hyacinth bulbs can shrink, as this one, and it's dropped through the hole

This is such a gloomy January I've had to use flash to photograph the hyacinths. Caribbean Dream hyacinths in the black and white vases on the left. Delft Blue in the vases at the back; Blue Star front right.

moving to the downstairs windowsill

fantastic blooms from this amaryllis bulb which has 2 stems: 3 large flowers on each; the bulb bowl on the right has 4 out of the 5 Splendid Cornelia bulbs in bloom; that one bulb hasn't grown - why??

view of the bulb bowl from the other side

bulb bowl with Miss Saigon hyacinths

This hyacinth bulb has 2 bulblets growing from it (usually it's just 1 if there're any) and 1 is so developed it's blooming. I usually remove any bulblets I notice so any energy from the bulb goes to the main flower, not developing a bulblet. In this case it's useful to make sure the shrinking bulb (all the bulbs shrink when forced) doesn't drop into the vase which has quite a large opening. The bulblets can grow and develop on their own if planted - but only if a bit of the basal plate of the bulb capable of growing roots is attached when they are removed from the parent bulb.

vases out of the dark January 3rd

the gardenwithindoors meets the gardenwithoutdoors: I noticed the fox in the garden in the background while I was taking photos of my hyacinth vases on the windowsill