the beauty of indoor bulbs

The Living Room fireplace - my harbinger of Spring

I'm afraid I haven't been posting as regularly as I would have liked so far this year. January wasn't a good month; we were without heating for most it, there was a fire next door which spread to our roof, our drains overflowed and our house came close to flooding (my poor neighbour wasn't so lucky), last week our cat Bootsy was very ill and the weather's been terrible so I've not been able to do any real gardening. 

It's not all doom and gloom though, I planted some hyacinth bulbs a few weeks ago which are finally flowering and they are cheering me up no end, that and the daffodils I treated myself to, to remind myself that spring is only around the corner, oh and Monty Don's new series French Gardens of course. 

I bought the bulbs cheaply just after Christmas, here's what they looked like at the start of January...

And now they're out and they're filling my house with their amazing scent, I just love hyacinths...

Hyacinthus ' Anna Marie'

Hyacinthus 'Purple Sensation'

Hyacinthus 'Purple Sensation'

The very appropriately named Hyacinthus 'Blue Giant'

Hyacinthus 'Blue Giant'

I also planted an amaryllis bulb just before Christmas, it took ages to grow (maybe due to our lack our heating, our house was so cold you could see your breath each time you spoke) after a few weeks this is what it looked like...

Amaryllis (I can't remember the name of the bulb!)

And now it's huge! It's so close to flowering, I really am so excited! I bought my grandma a double amaryllis bulb for Christmas, and hers is just looking spectacular, I can't wait for mine to flower too, if only to remind me what bulb I actually bought.

My Amaryllis, looking splendid in a champagne bucket

I did have some hyacinths which I had flowering for Christmas, I grew Jan Bos and their scent was most definitely the best of all I've grown so far. They'd unfortunately sold out of them when I bought my current hyacinth bulbs but here they are in all their glory.

Hyacinthus orientalis 'Jan Bos' 

Hyacinthus orientalis 'Jan Bos'