Happy New Year

some more blooms on Jan 6th

Some of the hyacinths upstairs are looking good (I feared many would be stunted like last year).

That blue vase in the front below needs topping up with water - nothing like a flash pic to hightlight something I didn't notice in natural light.

I've rearranged some of the vases, taking failures and spent blooms away and bringing up more vases that recently came out of the dark. Polly Pocket in her usual spot on the floor by the radiator.

Already I can see some have not performed and it's time to remove them from valuable windowsill space and make room for others.

In addition to Purple Sensation failures above, some Silverstone, Delft Blue and Skyline (although think they were mixed up at the garden centre so possibly not Skyline) failures below. Generally Delft Blue are great but the odd ones are not. I don't think Silverstone is going to be a reasonable forcing variety - it wasn't sold as prepared I just wanted to try it. Some unprepared bulbs work well. I should have bought enough to plant some Silverstone in the garden to do a proper comparison. Maybe it does great there. So far, does not do well forcing in a hyacinth vase, although large bulbs make it appealing for the vases with very large openings like the 2 green below.

Downstairs, Victor in his usual spot and some bulb bowls.

the white hyacinths so far this year

more vases coming out of the dark, some of my vintage tall ones, my favourite type, sadly my camera does not capture that purple/blue cobalt blue colour properly

I only started those Tye uranium ones (sickly green in the middle) the end of November and they've grown quickly, I think they will bloom in the next few weeks

the tiny bulbs in the Shorter and Son trough avoided the mice eating them as they were on top of a box which apparently they couldn't get to, I can't remember if those are crocus or tulips, will check

then 3 days later:

on my back windowsill downstairs,

This is the same bulb bowl, above and below, with Delft Blue hyacinths. I wanted to show both sides of the flowers. I love those beautiful buds.

right below, Caribbean Dream

left above and below, 4 purple Sainsbury's bulbs around 1 white in the middle

Upstairs at the front, it's such a dark start to January I've had to use the flash to take photos.

some hyacinths in bloom on the back windowsill upstairs

Sainsbury's purple hyacinth

Delft Blue, bit small but nice and the scent is wonderful

Miss Saigon hyacinth not quite blooming properly but still looks beautiful

the Sainsbury's white hyacinths haven't fully opened so far, not sure they will