Holiday color Potted hyacinths
bring their festive color indoors
Move
over poinsettias and amaryllis. The hyacinth is joining you as a favored holiday flower.
White is pulling ahead as the most popular color among Americans for the holidays,
followed closely by rich blues, then pinks.
To enjoy hyacinths for the holidays, the Netherlands flower Bulb Information Center
offers these tips:
* For long blooms, select young plants with tight buds and just a little color showing
not plants in full bloom. Watching the plants grow and the flowers unfold is lots of fun
for young and old.
* Keep soil moist but not soggy. Potted bulbs are generally sold in small plastic pots.
Take them home and doll them up:
* Double pot them by placing the plastic pot in a prettier pot - brass, silver, ceramic
- or cluster them in baskets. If you cluster several plastic pots in a large container,
camouflage the plastic with moss, wisps of filmy wrapping paper, natural straw or
decorative pebbles.
* Repot them by temporarily removing the bulbs and soil into a special container - you
can go without drainage holes for a few days - such as a crystal bowl or your
grandmother's best silver dish.
* Line the bowls with bits of silver balls, tinsel, sprays of evergreens or tendrils of
ivy.
* Mingle them with lit candles for a look that glows.
Remember, they make great gifts, too.
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