how fast do they root ... or is that a pic from a prior year ..

something i always wanted to do.. but with kids and cats and dogs.. etc. it just wasnt in the cards .. nor the budget ...

ken

I took this photo two hours ago, just before posting. I do some every year, But then I only had kids, never any cats or dogs. I put the bulbs into the vases in October. They start to root within a week. The bulbs are not particularly expensive (about $1 - 1.50 each) and shoving them into the vases and carrying them to the shed takes a few minutes. Then they are completely ignored until just before Christmas. Then I bring them inside a couple at a time to flower. However, I don’t suppose an unheated shed in your climate would work. I imagine the water in the vases would freeze.

You will have a lovely and fragrant? ongoing display. Years ago I did one this way but started it in the house. I really enjoyed it and should do it again, perhaps I need more bulb vases. The fragrance was very strong, I liked it but had to move it upstairs when a friend found it over powering.

Certainly fragrant. I only grow fragrant types. I'm surprised yours grew being started indoors. I would have that that would deprive them of the necessary cold.

Am I too late to order some bulbs online? Can they be put in potting mix (I don't have the vases).

Southern California

That will be wonderful, Hyacinths have such a wonderful fragrance. What color? Please share more photos as they get bigger and bloom!

My former neighbor used to keep me supplied throughout the dark days, she kept them in the fridge until timely and would supply a plastic kids cup to grow in (which I reliably returned :)) . Your bulb vessels are lovely! Sometimes my hyacinths tipped over, so a proper vessel is great!

I purchase tulips throughout the winter at my local grocery store, $8.99 for 10 tulips. Makes a HUGE difference in cheeriness, and I let them hang around for 2 or 3 weeks even as they dry out as long as they keep their color.

O, the sequential flowering is great, Floral. I grow a few for the offspring and granddaughters but Mr.Primula cannot cope with the scent of indoor hyacinths (and paperwhites are worse) so all mine have been passed on to their carers. I do have them outside where I like the looser flower structure which occurs after a year or so. Love the blue glass.

Do you mainly grow the whites? I like them most myself.

We did crocus one year, in minuscule little bulb glasses - won't bother again though.

I mostly do l'Innocence ie white because they have a great scent. I also like them in subsequent years in the garden. I don't mind the fat artificial-looking flowers indoors but outside I also prefer the looser blooms.

floral the one I had was likely forced and so ready to grow. I can't even recall if I purchased it or if it was a gift. The years ago was actually decades.

I used to do this. Next to freesias, hyacinths have the floral fragrance I like best and one of the few I can tolerate indoors. I haven't found any recently but local nurseries would often sell prechilled hyacinth bulbs intended specifically for forcing like this. I have a collection of bulb vases and would put them in the basement until they looked like floral's photo.

Lacking a basement and no local source for prechilled bubs now, I cheat and purchase already started bulbs which will appear in nurseries soon after the new year. I enjoy them indoors and then plant them outside to enjoy there in later years.

I understand about indoor scents. Can't deal with paperwhites or oriental lilies indoors. Or gardenia or jasmine. But I am more than happy to enjoy freesias, sweet peas and hyacinths!!

floral,

Here in the Great White North, I put my new 100 or so in the ground in October and they're now covered with a layer of snow. Which leads me to the question - in a less temperate zone (like yours) they obviously don't need to be in the ground; is this the only way you can get them to flower/grow, or can they be put in the ground and left there for spring?

'a less temperate zone (like yours)'. I don't quite understand that phrase. My climate is far more temperate than yours I believe. But we do have winter, and yes, we can plant any hardy bulbs in the autumn and they'll flower in spring. These forced hyacinths are exactly that, forced into early flowering. Outdoors they'll not flower until late March/April. The ones in my outdoor picture, above, were forced hyacinths which were then planted in the garden after they had bloomed indoors. They have flowered outside every spring since.

f,

I was thinking that you suffer less from the extremes of temperature (where we here can see temps in winter of -25C to a normal summer high some days of +40C) - perhaps my idea of temperate is skewed. I spent many years in Japan and Korea, and they are always described as temperate, hence my understanding of that. I'll look it up and see how wrong I am.

ETA - I am completely wrong! Thanks for the English lesson from the Motherland.

Temperate - '

relating to or denoting a region or climate characterized by mild temperatures.

"sage can be grown outdoors in cool, temperate climates" (Google)

Yes, that’s my understanding of temperate. Nothing too extreme. My coldest winter temperature might be -5 or so, but an unusually hot summer day might be 29.

We love hyacinths here. My DH has always been less enthralled with the garden than I am. He does not mind and actually appreciates some outdoor work in the garden, more than he does indoor work, but as far as appreciating plants and design etc., I might say he was neutral. But one year we discovered that he loved fragrance! I was very happy to see a way to increase his enjoyment of the garden since he works hard out there. So fragrance became my #1 priority with plant decisions.

He will pick up potted hyacinths at the supermarket in late winter and we get an early preview of spring that way. I do like the idea of growing them in vases and forcing them yourself, I just find the time between the end of the growing season and Christmas just too busy to do anything extra for the garden. I do have them in the garden and they reliably come back for me year after year.

Someone gifted me some hyacinth bulbs and the vase that went with it and I really enjoyed them that year. That was 2007, that's how long ago I did it. [g]

Floral, Enjoy your after Christmas pre-spring display!! It's a fun project!