In a Vase, Monday February 24, 2025

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Woo hoo! It is above freezing! Yesterday 6C and today supposed to be the same. The snow is melting making its muddy, slushy mess which heralds the real gardening season. Eight muddy paw prints constantly tracking through the house, water running down the street, muddy boots, a car the colour of concrete but it is almost spring. Today I perused the one bed on the south side of the house to see what has been revealed – not much, but a small promise of two or three green tips struggling through to reach the warmth.

My today’s offering is a simple vase of forced Grape Hyacinths, Muscari. One package has produced a couple of varieties, which in this setting can be studied more closely. The florets are very different in colour and form.

To make the vase more interesting as the bulbs grew, I layered some shells, perlite and soil. Watching the roots grow well before the green tips of the leaves emerged is fun. I did give the vase 10 weeks of cooling time in the cold, almost freezing garage as with other bulbs. The leaves still look much longer to show than those of the Hyacinths.

Generally speaking I think we are about six to eight weeks behind British gardens but we will catch up with lightning speed!

To see beautiful flowers from warmer climes do head over to Rambling In the Garden where Cathy hosts this wonderful Monday display of garden florals. Thank you Cathy.

https://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com

12 responses to “In a Vase, Monday February 24, 2025”

  1. krispeterson100 avatar
    krispeterson100

    The forced bulb flowers are a welcome introduction to the coming spring, Jenny. If your growing season is 6-8 weeks behind British gardens, I expect it’s 12 or more weeks behind those of coastal Southern California but then we don’t have a real winter (which I sometimes regret). Our temperature reached 77F/25C yesterday and there’s a forecast suggesting that it could reach 90F/32C later this week. The latter is NOT a good thing.
    https://krispgarden.blogspot.com/

    1. zonethreegardenlife.blog avatar

      Gosh, no that would be terrible this early. Lord knows I dread forest fire season as it is, and yours has been devastating. I never used to worry about weather!!

  2. Amelia avatar
    Amelia

    I love the simplicity of this. I have never successfully forced a hyacinth, so well done!! Spring will be here before you know it.

    1. zonethreegardenlife.blog avatar

      Cool period is key for forcing and we have no lack of that!

  3. Cathy avatar

    Oh what a lovely idea this is, something I would not have considered for muscari, and yet why not? It must have been fascinating to watch the progress – I especially like the pale blue variety with the ruffle, which I have grown myself before now, but I also really like the striking blue of the more ordinary varieties (I made a little basket of the latter for my eldest grandchild to carry when she was bridesmaid at Younger Daughter’s wedding). Are you forcing any other bulbs at the moment?

    1. zonethreegardenlife.blog avatar

      What a beautiful idea for a spring wedding.My Amaryllis have all decided to bloom for a second time but once these and the last few Hyacinths are over it will be time to look in the garden.

  4.  avatar
    Anonymous

    They are so pretty Jenny. It is a lovely idea to grow them in a glass vase too, so you can see the roots as well as the leaves and then flowers. 😃 Great to see these tiny flowers close up too. You will catch us up quickly – here in Bavaria we are only a few weeks ahead, but I think you will have more daylight hours than us soon.

  5. Cathy avatar

    They are so pretty Jenny. It is a lovely idea to grow them in a glass vase too, so you can see the roots as well as the leaves and then flowers. 😃 Great to see these tiny flowers close up too. You will catch us up quickly – here in Bavaria we are only a few weeks ahead, but I think you will have more daylight hours than us soon.

    1. zonethreegardenlife.blog avatar

      The days are certainly getting longer quickly. What latitude are you? I should check!

  6. Tracy avatar

    This is lovely, and a great harbinger of spring! Adding shells and perlite was a great idea.

    1. zonethreegardenlife.blog avatar

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