hope the agony's to do with the disappearing bulbs rather than in a physical sense, Jonathan. Were they in pots or in the ground?

Could have due to the weather, Johnathon, though not sure how cold it was in Berkshire. Freezing weather can affect bulbs in containers in two ways. Firstly, the freezing can damage the bulbs directly, just by being frozen. Also, frozen compost can block the drainage from the container so the dormant bulbs are sitting in very wet compost, causing them to rot.

This is strange, today one of my customers said exactly the same thing. They have Hyacinths in tubs (planted last October) and hardly any have come up. It must be the cold as their tubs are free drained.

Another strange thing is their Narcissus 'Jetfire' are almost all yellow with hardly any difference between the trumpet and the petals. Normally the trumpet is more orange?

I wonder about squirrels too - I've had hyacinths outside for years, but noticed by January that the squirrels had dug those up too, so none this year. They seemed to be extra active in all the pots outside this last winter. And just to add to the mystery, my tete a tete are showing a few puny leaves, far fewer than usual, with no sign of flowers this year.

That is strange Bamboo, My Tete a Tete and the similar more reflexed petalled Rapture are all full of buds and flowers.

The ones in open ground downstairs are fine, it's the ones in my balcony boxes which aren't - the same boxes raided consistently by the squirrel, so significant root disturbance might account for it. I'm waiting to see how many horse chestnut seedlings erupt, suspect they were burying as much as they were taking out.

Ah, I see :)

Hello chaps. So nice to chat to you. It has been quite a while since I have. My blind episodes make me a far less visitor to the website these days than I was. I don't really know whether it is degenerative or might improve, so I just have to hope for the best and keep visiting if I can. I was indeed only referring to my woe re bulbs Bamboo, joking of agony. The funny thing is I have started pure morphine today. On it for life. If the pain is under control, I can garden just a little. There's no chance otherwise. Thus, there is hope for the summer and this growing year, and I have something to live for rather than very little to live for. Its the power within me. That's my secret. ... No squrrels in my garden. Hardly a touch of frost here this winter in Bracknell. The lowest was minus two on just a few nights. Some were in pots and some in the ground. So can it only be rot? But why to bulbs which were fungusless upon planting? Would yellow sulphur help?

Hi Jonathan, sorry to read that you are not doing well - puts my problems well and truly into perspective! I don't think it is rot, but unless you can have a prod around and see if there are any grotty looking remains it is difficult to tell.

Fractal yes, the trumpet of Jetfire is usually orange. Of course bulbs do get wrongly labelled by the suppliers (I'm not implying you have wrongly labelled them!) We've had all sorts of bulbs from reputable nurseries that didn't turn out to be what they were meant to be.

Hi Moongrower. I think so too. I have Jetfire (one of my favourite). If it isn't orange then that isn't Jetfire.

Hi Jonathan, sorry to hear about your condition. As Mg says, it puts any little gripes we may have well and truly into perspective! I do hope that you can keep in touch with us all.

Hi Mg, yes, they are Jetfire, at least they were last year! Something has changed. Same clumps in exactly the same spot. Must be a chemical change in their flowers? Presume it's to do with the intense weeks of cold in December that has done something. They'll probably be normal next year.