A pot of tulip and hyacinth bulbs was delivered to us by UPS while we were out of town, and somehow it ended up in the post office where our mail was being held. When we picked up the mail, there it was, having sat unwatered and in the dark of its box for a week. I unpacked it as soon as I got it home, expecting the bulbs to still be dormant and under the soil.
Instead, everything has sprouted; but all the sprouts were waxy and white as well as contorted and bent under the constraints of the box. The sketch above shows the plants looking like Belgium endive or overly blanched celery.
I unpacked the moss from around the sprouts as well as the rubber bands that held the moss down. I watered it thoroughly, and put it outside in the sunshine. After a few hours the plants began to fill with purplish color which then turned green in most places. Stems and leaves plumped out.
A few more hours and the hyacinth flowers that were peeking out turned blue. By the next morning the plants looked almost normal. The purple areas had turned mostly green. The magic of sunlight and water!
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