Hyacinths in Pots
Baby Pink Hyacinth
Hyacinths in pots - now why didn't I think of that before? They fill a container so beautifully, with so many bright and subtle colours to choose from. I must be the last gardener in the world to actually get around to doing this rather simple thing.
Inspired by Helen Dillon...
Just last winter, inspired and envigorated by Helen Dillon's wise-woman words, I'd zoomed off to the nursery in full cry to buy masses of feature bulbs for my pots. They would provide colour and interest, placed cleverly in garden gaps, before the show-off flowery season began. I was thinking red tulips (not terribly original, I know).
Alas, it was too late to buy tulips, but there were a number of packets of hyacinth bulbs, shrivelled up in their bags, sad and neglected. Poor things! Was it to be slow death in holey plastic on a nursery shelf?
Bright Pink Hyacinth
Not while Moosey the Compulsive Rescuer was about! This was a first - I'd never rescued a hyacinth before. Poor, dear things! Well, not quite so dear - they were heavily discounted in price, but I'd have scooped them up anyway.
Rejected!
Cream Hyacinths in Terracotta Pot
It did occur to me they'd been rejected because of their colour - in the bulb world, blue hyacinths usually get first prize. But I've already got some regulation blues growing in the garden.
The plan (thanks Helen, and why have I never done this before?) was to enjoy their flowers, and then carefully remove the pot contents in one deft swoop, repot in plastic, feed, and stash behind the glasshouse. I will remember to label the colour, won't I?
Rewarded!
So a ten minute dash to the nursery (desperately late on the planting season) has been rewarded with hours and hours of awe-filled hyacinth pot-gazing. I love the subtle cream group in their aging terracotta pot. Baby pink is always very cute, and the stronger pink is gorgeous in a pot by the water. I've carefully picked older flopped-over flowers for the house vases. A beautifully fragrant and successful plant rescue - nice!