Scent of a Hyacinth

I love the scent of a hyacinth flower!
Some people actually complain the aroma is too ‘heady’ for them:(

I got a good whiff just walking along the brick path.
It smelled so good, I walked back and forth a few times!
Made me smile on an overcast day:)
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Long ago, I made and sold porcelain hyacinth vases,
which were used to ‘force’ a bulb to bloom indoors.
There were always extra bulbs at the end of the season,
which I planted under bushes within deer-fences.

White hyacinth live at the base of this budding lilac bush.
Because deer ignore daffodils,
those bulbs get to live outside the protective fence.
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Lots of hyacinths live below this rhododendron.

Did you know that blue, white and purple hyacinths
are the best color of these flowers to force?
I can’t say for sure if I bought the bi-color flower bulbs,
or they hybridized naturally.

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An Early Bounce from Spring

We took a two week trip to visit grandboys,
missing a snowstorm, cold and rain while gone.

Upon our return home, I took my camera
around the house to see what had bloomed in my absence.

These hyacinth bulbs are in the same bed.
Photos confirm that white hyacinth flower before the blue ones.
I love the scent from hyacinth, even though it can be strong.
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In the same bed as the hyacinth above are these bloomers.

The windflower anemones shown are in various stages of bloom.
They have self-multiplied all through this bed,
and will flower for at least another month.

Our local weather has sun and cold rain in spurts (significantly less sun),
which has extended the bloom time of early spring flowers.
Tons of daffodils are planted in front of the house.
They are starting to bloom at not-exactly-the-same-time.
I am not sure if this is the soil or the particular micro-climate.
Those are clumps of bluebells coming up near the daffodils.
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More purple flowers!
Just a small bunch of miniature iris here.
Up close, they show some weather damage, but are still pretty.

Anemones are short, but sweet, flowering.
There is a bud behind and to the left of this blossom.
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I have shown this batch of flowers already this year, but am doing so again.
Bergenia are blooming in many places – they were easy to divide.

Pink hellebore are finally blooming, much later than the white.
There are still buds on the pink-flowered plant, and
the weather forecast has enough cool rain to keep these around for awhile.

Hordes of Hyacinths

For many years, I made hyacinth vases to sell before the holidays.
They always included a pre-chilled bulb, ready to be forced to bloom.

Of course, there were always left over bulbs (as I ordered in quantity),
that I kept planting in my gardens.

Most of the hyacinth bulbs live in my ‘flower jails’
to protect them from marauding deer and rabbits.

Every year the rabbits have chewed the flowers and leaves of the un-fenced bulbs in this bed.  This is the first year in memory, the flowers have survived.

The rabbit population rises and falls annually, opposite that of the predators, usually coyotes, though there is the occasional bobcat or bear.  Since hyacinths are blooming safely out of the fence, it lets me know to be aware the predator population is on the rise.

Late Winter Blooms

We’ve had rain and cold with very few hours of sun here and there.
This weather is making hyacinths slow to fully open, also the daffodils.
On the other hand, it is truly violets favorite weather, as they are thriving.

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Pale lavender windflowers, anemone blanda, growing at the base of a rose bush.
These flowers spread easily, and compliment the purple violets.

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Spinach planted last summer is now flowering.
The flowers look prettier than the leaves tasted.
I will try a spring or fall planting next try, the summer planting was strong tasting!

White Flowers Hyacinth and Crocus

 

Did you know that the white hyacinth flowers before the blue or purple colored one?  Or that the purple crocus blooms before the white crocus?  I have been trying to figure out if the white colored specimens of a flower bloom first or later than the other colors of the same name.  Here it is early in the bloom season, and I already have two different bulb flowers that give me opposite information.  I can only conclude that there is no “theory of everything”.  Ever since Albert Einstein, physicists have been searching for a “Theory of Everything”, and perhaps Mother Nature has been trying to tell us all along that does not exist.