Mystery White Flower

A large area of my garden is covered with these plants, most of which are in the budding stage. I only have one in flower so far. Here is a photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46001037@N02/4515096561/

Here are a mass of them in the budding stage. Quite a bit of my garden looks this way!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46001037@N02/4515097897/

Does anyone know what these are?

 

Thanks! That's it! :thku:

When you say "naturalizing" do mean they're reverting back to their natural, wild state? :cnfs:

 

Thats somewhat correct however as cultivars they don't have a wild state as they are of 'Garden Origin' however the numerous hybrids and cultivars that originate from Hyacinthus orientalis do for some reason return to a similar size and flower arrangement of there wild ancestor if left untouched for a number of years, this is why they are usually grown in pots or as bedding so that they can be lifted each year and prevent there naturalization

unfortunatley I couldn't find any information on why they do this:( I can only assume that the plant is getting less and less nutrients and so reduces the outlay of energy in producing large full flower spikes in favour of producing a few flowers each year and prolonging it's production of seed?

maybe I'm reading into it a bit too much:lollol: being 3:20AM:snz:

 

We have a lot of them in our garden too, but very few white ones, mainly pale pink and pale blue. They do well in a semi-shady area and multiply all by themselves. In fact, they can get out of hand, so you do need to keep an eye on them if they start popping up in areas where you don't want them. However, they put on such a nice show, that it is worth that extra bit of "weeding out". :D

 

I would love to be able to see these pictures, but having now waited 20 minutes for them to appear on Flickr I have given up.

 

You see what bothers me in a way, is that we have been planting the Xmas Hyacinths out in this garden for the last 14 years and they come up and flower every year exactly the same colour as they were when they flowered in the bowls.
The odd thing, to me, is that bulbs like this do not revert. They may die and be replaced by seedlings which are a different colour.
I think the ones in the picture are in fact Spanish Bluebells,in their white form. Now they will seed themselves around and you will get pink, blue, white seedlings and they do spread like wild garlic!
But, I wouldn't stake my reputation on being correct.
Hyacinthoides hispanica.
The sweet smelling Xmas one is Hyacinthus orientalis.

 

Hi Palustris. Did you see the images? I can post some directly onto the forum now as I've just opened a photobucket account. Let me know if you'd like me to do that.

I googled images for wild hyacinths and for white bluebells. My plants do resemble the pictures of white hyacinth more though the jury is still out. The petals are very thick (if that helps). The funnels aren't as long and wide as bluebells, my plants have the hyacinth nobble at the base of the flower, and they face sideways rather than hanging down. They do seem to be spreading though, and not just in my garden. My nearest neighbour also has them all over the lawn! No worries though; I like them!
:cutflwrs:

 

Thanks everyone for the info about naturalization. That's interesting. I wonder why it reverts. What's the difference, biologically between a cultivated, garden, flowering plant and its wild equivalent anyway? Is it genetic? Perhaps it's something to do with recessive genes in the cultivated variety. (Just a very wild guess!)

 

Well, I had a wander round our garden yesterday and all our Hyacinths are flowering and they are all still the same colour as they were when they were planted and they are spreading by bulb offsets not seed. They do not seem to produce seed. The new offsets are the same colour as the the parent bulb and the same all round the stem shape too. By the way the original wild Hyacinth was blue.

 

Interestingly the wildly spreading plants in my 2nd photo turned out not to be the same type as the first. I think they're related wild onion! (I may post another thread about that.) The white hyacinth (photo #1) is the only one of its kind which has appeared. :wink: