When I get up in the morning my first jobs before breakfast are to put out the recycling left from the dark evening before diligently separating the plastics from the tins from the paper from the cardboard. Next I feed the birds topping up the containers on the main feeder and the little cups near the holly hedge inside which the birds lurk awaiting their breakfast. Then it's into the back of the garage to sort out the cat lit tray - the less said about that the better, I think! This morning, whilst in there, I decided to take a quick peek into the gloom under a shelf at the pot of paperwhites planted a few weeks ago!
My goodness how they've grown! I was hoping that they would flower over Christmas and New Year but they do seem to be racing on, don't they? I've popped them back into the gloom for a while longer to try and halt their progress a little. They can't wait to grow and bloom and I can't wait to see them and experience their special fragrance for, as we enter the new year, they remind me of the joys of spring to come.
Meanwhile the cyclamen has sprouted into life again. Each year I put the dry, dead looking corm into the same gloom now occupied by the paperwhites, then at this time of year I fetch it out and sprinkle it with water and watch the little hook like tendrils turn into fresh green leaves. Later it will flower and stay flowering until spring when it is put away for another season. I've been doing this for at least five years now. It never fails to bloom again and never ceases to amaze me!
Your cyclamen looks perfectly healthy. I didn't realise that it could come back year after year! I will have to check the greenhouse to see what is lurking in there! x
ReplyDeleteI love cyclamen .... they are such good value plants. I've had one flowering in my classroom for months now!
ReplyDeletexxx
I usually plant the Cyclemen out in my garden - they always suprise me when they flower again. xxxxx
ReplyDeleteI have a cyclamen on my office desk, getting in the mood for Christmas...
ReplyDelete& seeing your paper whites have given be a jolt to finish planting mine.... Thankyou!
Lx
I really should check on my cheerfulness bulbs!
ReplyDeleteMy husband has the green fingers in our household. Each Autumn he starts to water our dried out cyclamen and they behave wonderfully...!
ReplyDeleteI planted paperwhites in Oct, mine shot up when I bought them in and have died back already, but I have some in the garage to give to my mum and my mother in law for Christmas, I love their strong green shoots, and look at them every day when I sort my recycling out too. They are such a lovely thing to look at and smell on cold, grey January day.
ReplyDeleteMy mum keeps buying new cyclamens every year! She probably ignore that with proper cares she can get new flowers from the same plant, LOL!
ReplyDeletexxx