Early, Spring bulbs

[goosey]

I have been pottering around the garden this morning and have discovered that some of the Muscari (grape hyacinth) bulbs are growing and the tallest shoots are already 7cm! What is going on these are not due to flower until February?

[jnb]

They may be shooting now but there's a long gap between that and their flowering. From my experience hyacinth are always up before the winter and then hang around for a long time before flowering. With such a good april and bad summer as we have had they may be responding as though it's autumn already.

[Cotham Marble]

As with many bulbous plants the foliage of Muscaria tends to die back after flowering and then only after a rest period the length of which is to some degree dependant on weather and perhaps also soil conditions, becomes re-established. The longer the period in leaf, the stronger the bulbs are for the next flowering and/or the number of offsets that are produced. In my experience Muscaria foliage begins to reappear from late July onwards.

CM

[goosey]

Thank you both, this really threw me. This is only the second season I have had these so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Last year I planted over 100 bulbs, muscari, snowdrops, dwarf irises, winter acconite, and dwarf tulips - all wildlife friendly for early insects. I followed the instructions for when to plant ect, mainly October. By November the muscari were a mass of foliage and no sign of a bud. The other bulbs apart from the acconte had also started to grow. I thought the muscari had no chance of survival and bought replacements and planted them the begining of December. In February the second lot flowered luckily for the insects of which there were plenty. At the end of March the first lot decided to flower, so I had an extended season and they were a great hit fwith the hoverflies.

[naturelover]

[quote=goosey;158606]I have been pottering around the garden this morning and have discovered that some of the Muscari (grape hyacinth) bulbs are growing and the tallest shoots are already 7cm! What is going on these are not due to flower until February?



hi beat this then,belive it or not i have the primrose family in bloom,been flowering since the spring,of course i have watered them well and they did stop flowering for a while,but now i have lots of buds on them pluss flowers,how strange is that,they normaly die right back this time of year.