garden withindoors

I took the crocus vases out of the cellar recently. The crocus stems don't have flower bulges like hyacinths but at that height I thought they must be ready to come out.

One of these hyacinth bulbs is definitely ready to come out of the cellar but one of them is not, the others in between . I guess that's the drawback of a bulb bowl with 5 bulbs. I hope they will catch up.

"just needs water"

I'm not trying to advertise Sainsbury's but I do love seeing indoor bulbs being sold and I love the slogan "just needs water". They really are that easy!

And at 3 pounds for a hyacinth vase including a bulb (top left in the photo below), they are quite affordable.

The warm weather continued so long into the autumn the forced bulbs in the cellar are growing very fast and ready so early to come upstairs. I've never known them to be so early. Usually they need to come up by December 1st and they often aren't ready then but I have quite a few that really seem to need to come up. As shown in these photos, the bulge of the flower is fully out of the bulb. That needs to be the case before bringing the bulbs (in whatever container/vase) into the warmth and light.

If only I'd had a supply of these in September.

Things to do after the vases and containers are brought into the warmth and light.

1. top up with water

This pink plastic vase needs topping up with water. The lid is quite open and allows more evaporation.

2. remove bulblets

This one must have developed in the weeks it's been in the cellar as I removed any that I noticed back in September when I put the bulbs in the vases.

3. top up containers with soil

The roots tend to push up the bulbs so the containers may need to be topped up with soil

4. push the roots down into the vase

Some of the roots here are growing outwards for some reason. I try to push them back into the vase although that will make some of them break off.

As I noted elsewhere, pink flowered bulbs tend to flower earliest. It's no coincidence that all these bulbs are Jan Bos, Pink Pearl, 1 Fondant (pink) and 1 White Pearl (white I assume so why is it so early? we'll have to wait and see). In the past Jan Bos have been the earliest bloomers.

It was so grey and rainy last week I thought the one thing I could do indoors was to start the amaryllis. I'm down to 4 vases after breaking 1 recently and buying another over the summer.

The roots are starting their rotting phase and the water is just starting to turn brown but as in previous years I'm sure that will be followed by fresh roots. And the stems are certainly growing strongly already. On the right is a hyacinth vase (from Marks and Spencer) which I was given as a present recently.  What a nice pressie to receive! It makes a nice contrast with the amaryllis to highlight the size differences. It should be it in the cellar.

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While this is going on, If you would like to share anything, photos, news about your bulbs, etc, feel free to email me: julie  at gardenwithindoors.org.uk, thanks.

Checking on the hyacinth bulbs today (after 7 weeeks in the dark) shows many have masses of roots and many have flower stems sprouting. Of course they should be kept in the cellar (or similar dark environment) for another 5 weeks until about December 1st when the flower stem with the bulge of the flower has emerged from the bulb. I just took them out to take a photo.

Unlike previous years many of the bulbs have a coating of mold. It does seem to be quite warm still in the cellar and it's certainly damp, both with all the rain in recent weeks and my cellar is damp anyway. I'm not sure why some bulbs have it and some do not. I will have to note it in my spreadsheet and see if there's any correlation with hyacinth variety.

4 of the vases below have prominent stems sprouting. It will be interesting to see if there is a correlation with hyacinth variety for this as well.

Some of the crocus bulbs have lots of roots but not all of them; they aren't nearly as consistent as the hyacinths. I find the crocus bulbs (and tulip bulbs), unlike the hyacinth bulbs, benefit from actually sitting in the water. The hyacinths will rot if they sit in water.

All of the small vases below are actually crocus vases. I'm using them for small tulip bulbs. As far as I know there are no "official" tulip vases so we just have to improvise any vase that will hold a tulip bulb which do vary in size depending on the variety. Most of the tulip bulbs below are quite small and can fit easily in a crocus vase. The tall black vase is a truffle bottle holding a slightly larger tulip bulb as is the darker blue vase in the middle.

A comparison of bulb sizes, below left to right: large hyacinth, average hyacinth, small tulip, crocus, very small tulip.

I took the hyacinth bulbs I was preparing myself out of the fridge last week. I can't believe it was 6 weeks already since I bought them beginning of September - time flies. Of course, it was silly of me to buy so many bulbs but I just couldn't resist them. I have no more vases or even pots to put them all in! although obviously I've found a few pots to use. This first set of pots was from Sainsburys a few years ago that came with narcissus bulbs.

That white vase is just too small for those enormous amaryllis bulbs (see pic below) so I decided to try it with a hyacinth bulb instead. These Delft Blue bulbs are very large anyway so certainly seem good for this white vase. It's rather late to start a hyacinth in a vase but not completely unreasonable, within a feasible timeframe. 

I saw some amaryllis bulbs a few days ago, the first I've seen this year, so thought I would buy them in case I didn't come across any others. Actually I did see some last week but they came with a pot and I just wanted the bulbs.

On the far left is my first amaryllis vase which I bought a few years ago at a garden centre being sold as an amaryllis vase. It came packaged in a box with an amaryllis bulb. Next is what I think is an "official" amaryllis vase although it was not sold as such but only because I don't think the seller (on ebay) realised what it was. I did have a similar one sold as an amaryllis vase but unfortunately it broke. Next is not an official amaryllis vase but one that I think is quite suited to holding an amaryllis bulb. The bulbs I bought the other day are massive and too big for that vase. The next vase on the far right is from Ikea and not an "official" amaryllis vase. I had 3 of these but I just broke one while trying to rinse out the dust. I had broken one while still at Ikea so they are somewhat fragile. This was a few years ago that I bought them from Ikea, who no longer sell this style of vase. These bulbs, being so massive, are somewhat expensive, especially compared to other smaller varieties such as hyacinths so I don't do them every year. These were £8.99 each so I just bought 4.

As with forcing any bulb in water, the vase is filled with water to just below the bulb. The existing roots have always rotted for me but I just remove them and replace the water with fresh, as required. Amaryllis are quite quick to bloom and do not need any time in the dark. I will have to check my notes from previous years but I think they take about 6 weeks from putting in water to having blooms.

I was lucky enough to find another truffle bottle. They are a very good size to use as a tulip vase. Tulips bulbs vary enormously in size and I'm not expert on them but this variety (which I chose by size at the garden centre this week, I'll check the name) is a perfect size.

There is variation of size within the range of 10 bulbs in the pack so I chose the best one for this vase, filled it with water and put it in the cellar with the rest of the bulb vases and pots.

I love cats, especially black cats, so I like seeing this one at one of my local garden centres. Behind them you can see the hyacinth vases they have for sale: brand new, I think they were £2.99. This and other new vases sold at garden centres this time of year are misdescribed on ebay as "vintage". Please take note! and don't pay a premium for an "antique" that is anything but that you can buy new retail.

While I was there I bought my amaryllis bulbs for this year. They're enormous! (photo to be added tomorrow)

I got some new bulb vases on ebay to try. Well, they aren't official "bulb" vases but I'm trying them out as bulb vases. They are quite small so I'm using 2 crocus bulbs and a small tulip bulb. They're just sitting in the other vases to keep them upright.

These are the hooks they came with but I don't think they're going to work for me. With one end in the vase it's in the way of the bulb - and the roots when they eventually grow and extend into the vase.

Monty Don actually forcing hyacinths on Gardeners World! (last night, Oct 4th) I don't think they've ever done that, certainly not since I've been watching in recent years.

I ran out of steam with these crocus bulbs so they've been sitting on the table for weeks. My squirrels have disappeared or all the bulbs would have been eaten. I did buy some vases on ebay suitable for crocus bulbs - on impulse - so I thought I should get the crocus bulbs started until the vases arrive in the post (watch this space). I had decided to get rid of these vases to thin my collection but I unpacked them again to use them temporarily.