Hyacinthoides and stamen colors
Kathleen Sayce (Sun, 11 May 2008 14:31:11 PDT)

Having a yard well supplied with Hyacinthoides of many colors, which
I let grow almost everywhere they decide to appear, I went out in the
rain yesterday and inspected about 100 flowering plants to see if the
stamen color is ever anything but the flower color. I am reporting
back that in one case I saw a light blue flower with dark blue
stamens, and in one other case, a blue flower with very pale, almost
white stamens, and in all other flower spikes, the tepal color was
the same as the stamen color, be it white, pink, or blue, light to
dark. The open flowers vary from wide bells to narrow, straight
bells, the spikes from upright with spirals of flowers opening along
the stem to 'one-sided' curved; width of leaf and overall height
appear to be related to bulb vigor and otherwise do not vary widely;
all plants appear to be in peak bloom right now. This garden was
first planted in 1865-1880s, restored in the 1940s, again in the
1980s, and no new bulbs of this genus have been added since the first
two peak gardening periods.

If desired, I can supply hundreds of bulbs for the next bulb
exchange, though not sorted by color. . .
Kathleen