Hyacinths of various sorts

This first photo is probably what most people think of when they hear the name hyacinth. The parent of these was Hyacinthus orientalis, but they are pretty far removed from that now. These are wonderful, highly scented (maybe too highly scented for a vase on the dining room table) and don't grow all that well here. An older variety 'Woodstock' which is a deep magenta/cranberry color seems to last well, but others haven't been as lucky. We did plant some 2 years ago along the walk from the house. The pink ones all bloomed nicely last year. The blue ones had nice leaves but only some misshapen 1 inch tall blooms sort of like they had been squashed into the ground. I'm curious what they'll do this year. By the way, these are one of the few early spring bulbs that come in pink, a color not all that present in the early spring garden.

These second hyacinths are known here as Wood Hyacinths. Proper name escapes me at the moment. These are lovely in a shaded place and multiply freely. They also come in white and pink in addition to the lovely blue one pictured. They aren't over a foot tall and form nice clumps. These aren't scented and also make good cut flowers.

This last is a white form of the Wood Hyacinth. The flowers are very delicate and look waxy. They bloom more with the daffodils that the early things.

We finished cleaning up all/most of the damage from the ice storm. It was more than we had thought. After dragging all of the large limbs out of the gardens we then had to cut broken branches. One huge on from the mulberry still needs to be dealt with, but since it is not totally broken off and spread out and being held up by the barn roof, it is not an urgent matter and a job neither of us is crazy about starting. Today will be spent in general garden cleanup while we still have nice if totally unseasonable weather. Working in a t shirt was nice yesterday, though I had to keep a sweatshirt on while I was working with the juniper. I love looking at the stuff, just hate touching it since it prickles so much and too much of it will give me a rash. Ugh!.

Jane