Hyacinth Follies

Screaming yellow daffodils with pastel pink hyacinths... shield thine eyes!

Daffodil 'King Alfred' with Hyacinth 'Pink Pearl' - Yikes!

What was I thinking? First of all, I somehow didn't realize they would bloom together. In my PLAN the daffs bloom earlier than the hyacinths (which was true for early daffs last year). Secondly, I was envisioning the pink hyacinths looking stunning against a background of the deep purple foliage of a nearby cotinus and barberry - which of course haven't even begun to leaf out yet. Whoops. I will have to move the hyacinths somewhere else this fall, and replace them with another color, perhaps white. It's a great spot for hyacinths, because the fragrance wafts in through the windows at night. For now, I'll have to enjoy them with my eyes shut.

They do harmonize with the blue-green clumps of emerging sedums - if only the eye could crop a view as easily as the camera can!

Hyacinth 'Pink Pearl'

Elsewhere in my hyacinth planning misadventures, these 'Woodstock' hyacinths are blooming WITHOUT their intended companions of purple tulips and cream daffodils:

Hyacinth 'Woodstock', blooming all on their lonesome

Naturally, a good half of what I planted got eaten by rabbits. The rabbits in my garden do not appear to actually like the TASTE of hyacinths, but they repeatedly forget this fact a few seconds after biting into one and spitting it out. They take a large chomp, screw up their little bunny faces and spit out the abomination - yuck! Then the next night they are back for more. Ooh, what are those sweet-smelling things, they think. I regularly find new chewed-up, spit-out hyacinth bits next to decapitated plants. Now I know where the expression "dumb bunny" comes from.

Thankfully, these 'Blue Jacket' hyacinths are looking lovely next to pale blue phlox divaricata. Last year, the 'Blue Jacket' blooms overlapped with white narcissus, pink bleeding hearts, and pink bergenia, but this year these companions are nowhere near blooming stage yet. The phlox, I must admit, were purchased large and already blooming and deposited defiantly in the bare spots near the hyacinth, a move I would generally consider "shopping", not "gardening" and thus despise. But we do get desperate for companions at times!

Hyacinth 'Blue Jacket' and Phlox divaricata 'Blue Moon'

Oh, the chomped off edges of the hyacinth foliage? You guessed it - dumb bunnies!