Sheila I always plant mine fairley deep in the garden and if they come up again, bonus!!

Yea, I shove them in my window boxes (well, more usually, I shove the pot outside when the flowers are done and then stick in the boxes in Spring!) and they're usually good for about 3 years - but outside, not in. After that, the flowers become much more like bluebells.

Thank you both . . . it did seem a shame to just throw them out. So in the garden they will go when the soil is no longer rock hard!

It is funny you say that Bamboo, we have been planting them out after flowering for more years than I care to remember and they are still coming up as decent sized Hyacinth flowers, even the 14 year old ones.

Well, lucky you, Owdboggy.

Iam lucky too then Bamboo. the first year in the ground tends to be a bit weedy but after that they dont do bad at all.

Mine do well the first year outside, but then they lose that lovely fatness by about Year 3, so I get rid then.

I think, in that case, it must be down to the soil. The ones we have planted, both garden and prepared ones have continued to grow well and increase in numbers. We have not even bothered to feed them either.

Thanks chaps!

Must be the restriction involved in being shoved in troughs along with tons of other plants during summer, in particular.

Mine have usually lost the "fatness" after the first bloom, but hyacinths are marginal here anyway. I also don't expect any bulb to bloom sooner than 2 years after they have been forced--I count the few exceptions as pleasant surprises!

I put ex potted hyacinth bulbs in with a Spirea in the front garden a long time ago, to bloom while the Spirea is bare. Some of them still make a decent sized flower.