Couldn't pass up a few hyacinth bulbs offered at 1/2 price. Am forcing them in the dark cool garage. After only one week, the roots are around a half inch and busy as can be.
We haven't got any hyacinths for indoors this year which is a shame because I love the banana scent from the flowers. Well that's what they smell like to me, perhaps I'm strange. Isn't it great watching the roots grow in the glass containers. Do you plant them out after they finish flowering, Maggie?
Terry, do not cut yourself DOWN !!! Thats our JOB!!!!! Yes, they do smell....Nice......
As if I could forget. J
The Boys are back, and back at it!
Banana scent hummm, I never thought of that. If these make it to bloom, I'll consider it and let you know!
No, I don't plant them out afterwards Terry. They are meant to be too drained from the forcing to resurrect. Do forced ones return for you? Even those planted in a normal outdoor cycle fail to return here. Either from my heavy soil or our hot summers or both - as is the case with hybrid tulips here. Scott of Old House sells antique varieties that may do better here, as the species and old tulips do, but to tell you the truth, I prefer to see them in vases rather than earth.
The hy blooms have long come and gone, but wanted to let you know Terry, that one of the pink one's scent did smell a bit like bananas to me too. Except it was more like cooked bananas with a caramel sugar glaze to me!
Also, I wanted to mention that some of the vases were my mother's, so there was a double pleasure in having the hy blooms this year. 
The vase at the front I recognise, but not the one at the back. Cooked bananas and caramel, your senses are working overtime there Maggie, or is it wishful thinking. 
The back one didn't make it to the first shoot, poor thing got left out. I brought them to light gradually, so as to have just one or two open at a time. One could scent an entire room. The pink and magenta ones didn't even get a bloom pic made 
but they were great. Did someone say dessert? I remember that. Vaguely.
I planted some hyacinth in a large planter under a tree. They are blooming now, and are quite lovely. They are much larger than when I planted them in the vases.
We tried one in the glass planter a couple of years ago Maggie, it never developed properly, do you add anything to the water?
No, didn’t add anything but water - they come as a self-contained kit ;-). It is the cool temp and no light that sets um off, which is why I put them in the garage for a couple of months. After 6 weeks, they develop roots, leaves and/or signs of flower buds in the dark. Bringing them into warmth and light brings on the flower and more leaf growth.
To have them open gradually, I took only one or two at a time, to the cool, sunny greenhouse to get the most light, but a sunny window would work too. I leave them in grnhouse until the bloom is nearly full, before bringing them indoors. Their scent was intoxicating in the small greenhouse, yet it dispersed more in the house. The cooler the room is, the longer the bloom lasts. I think it was about 2 weeks or so, for each bulb, which is longer than cut flowers. Staggering the bringing-to-light stage kept 2 or 3 blooms on the table for well over a month. The family enjoys our little ‘indoors winter gardens’ on the breakfast table.