Color chips

This year, I was determined to prepare enough hyacinth bulbs to combat those dead of winter doldrums.  With the frothy, festive show of dozen or so bulbs of "Gypsy Queen," "L'Innocence," and "Lady Derby", we're almost there. 

To prepare the hyacinths for indoor blooming, I cool the bulbs in the refrigerator crisper drawer for about nine weeks. Then, each bulb is set in a glass forcing vase. There are lovely vintage vases to be found out there in shades of blue, green, purple, and amber.

 

 

Just add water up to the base of the bulb, and a few weeks later roots appear . . .  

 

. . . followed by flower heads a week or so later. The blooms bring fragrance, life, and beauty to a grey winter day and yes, as the poet says, feed one's soul.

 

Winter white

Another weekend, another snowstorm, another white bloomer.  Here, amaryllis "Picotee" comes shining through our current blizzard.

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We're still recovering from over two feet of snow that dropped this weekend.  Inside, sweet-smelling paperwhite narcissi "Ziva" capture the white light reflected from outdoors.

They almost look like bright exploding snowballs. 

And another set of white blooms, amaryllis "Picotee," is just about ready to launch. There may be too much white outside but is there too much indoors? Never!