PLANT OUT FORCED BULBS
How to make the most of those used indoors
LAST year I planted up a couple of bowls with forced hyacinths for inside the house and they delivered fabulous colour and scent during the dark days of winter.
It seemed a shame – and such a waste – to discard these bulbs once they had flowered, because with hardly any effort on the gardener’s part they can be given a new lease of life out in the garden.
Forced bulbs are prepared for indoor flowering by being commercially frozen for a time during the summer. This cons them into thinking they have lived through a winter and so are ready to start to grow again sooner than they would if left to start shooting naturally.
Forcing takes a lot out of the bulb, so they are unlikely to flower again as strongly. However, they can be planted in the garden where they should still put on a good show at their normal flowering time in spring.
After mine had flowered around Christmas time last year, I cut off the blooms and left the plants in the corner of the greenhouse, without feeding or watering, so the foliage could wither and die back before being removed.
They sat out the spring and summer there and now, while the soil is warm and damp, is an ideal time to plant them out.
I put them together in a clump in an area of sheltered dappled shade, so hopefully they will bring a blast of springtime colour and scent to that corner of the garden.
■ Hyacinth bulbs are renowned skin irritants, so always wear gloves when handling them.