Image copyright Fennel and Fern
This white hyacinth has been poised on the brink of bursting open all week. The white stars are beginning to tentatively open and shout their scent all over the room.
Previous experience with hyacinths inelegantly falling over like a model on a catwalk has taught me a number of things. The first is that you need to be quite mean to these poor plants if you are growing them indoors. I kept mine in the fridge over Christmas to hold it back from flowering, and then positioned it on the coffee table in my north-facing sitting room.
Giving hyacinths a seat on the windowsill and overwatering them will cause them to get a little over-excited and put out more lush growth than they can handle when their big heads emerge from the foliage and burst open. And if you’re keeping your heating down for the environment, all the better. Hyacinths aren’t conservatory plants, and they flower outdoors when sunshine is only paying your garden the very minimum attention.
And once you have been spectacularly stand-offish with your poor plant, it will reward you with a stellar show of blooms. Doesn’t quite seem fair, really.
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