I always set mine out and have learned it takes a year or two for the bulb to build itself back up. All my gardener friends say they have noticed it also.

Personally, I prefer them looser and more natural looking in an outdoor setting. Indoors their artificial appearance is fine but outside I like them to blend in with other new growth and bulbs. I would call them elegant rather than stingy. I plant them out in groups by colour. And the scent is just as good.

Ah yes, I am in absolute agreement with Flora here. Hyacinths grown outside often start to grow several much smaller flowering stalks which does away with that unseemly flopping over. In fact, in recent years, 'multi-stemmed' hyacinths have become available from bulb catalogues for precisely this more natural effect. Being cynical, I am convinced these are just the usual hyacinths we have always planted in pots anyway...although the variety of colours seems to be limited to blue pink and white.

Oh Flora, is that a glimpse of your own garden? May we see more?!

That's pretty much all of it. It's microscopic.

Late Summer:

January with rare snow:

I am glad we have members here that see the glass half full, but when it comes to hyacinths, I buy them for the fullness and beauty and hope they come back looking just as full..For me it's a waste of money to get a heck of a lot less than what you expected...I spend good money on a nice full pot of them, money on cow poop, and money on the best bulb fertilizers and this is all I get on most of mine..Too shamed to even post the rest.

I think this is stingy.....I got four little flowers that came up when this same bulb had a 5 inch stalk of fully loaded flowers when I purchased it last year,,,I would fill my yard with them and spend lots of money to have them come back a lot more fuller than this....

Floral. I must say that I love your garden even with the snow..Great job!

That one certainly is disappointing. It's not just small, it's distorted and yellowing. Maybe all the attention is the problem. I just shove mine in a hole in the garden as soon as the flowers are over. I buy prepared bulbs and force them myself the first year and thereafter they're on their own. The ones in the top picture are several years old. I never fertilize them. So the expense is small. However, my climate does provide sufficient water all year round. Do you plant yours out in the green or dry them off first? The ones behind look as if they're going to be bigger.

Your garden is lovely, Flora. I have always valued your observations and suggestions, so it is nice to know that my instincts are right about your taste. Thanks for sharing your garden and your time to respond to all of our questions.

w and let them flower there00) Would that be a bad call....

You could plant them in the ground now but there's no reason to. The ones you buy in bud in the spring have been forced for indoor display s you might as well use them for that. I don't really understand your sentence "I let the green leaves die off at frost time but cut the flower stalk once it's spent." The green leaves die off naturally as Spring progresses and Summer starts, so I don't really get what you mean by "frost time." I think that maybe the big difference is that in my garden there is never any drought. The bulb foliage dies down over a period of weeks naturally, not through lack of water. I never feed them or amend the planting holes. If you want hyacinths in the garden and planting out forced ones isn't working for you just plant bulbs outdoors in the Autumn.

This is a more accurate view of the 2016 hyacinth season. The flowers are now mostly mush

Katob..Those are beautiful...They must smell great...I feel bad for you guys down there..At least here we stay cold enough to hold back the perennials until mostly the threat of winter is over...There you average warmer than us so that everything grows earlier and then to get blasted with snow, that stinks..I don't even want to think of your flowering fruit trees and the such(

I Like The Loose Look and It's NOT So Over Powering.......

Those look perfect for planting. Be very careful with the roots since any you break will not grow back and if the root tips are damaged they will also not continue to grow... But don't let me scare you, it's as easy as planting anything else just dig a hole, put it in , water, and then fill around with soil. No amendments or fertilizer are necessary right now.

Does everyone buy forced ones in spring for the garden? If you buy them in the fall, with your tulips and daffs etc., you will get big flowers the first year, like the forced bulbs. Later they will skip the lean year(s) and continue to bloom with the smaller flowers, but not the puny ones you often get in the beginning with the forced ones.