Hyacinths

A guide to hyacinth bulbs and their culture indoors and outdoors.

HYACINTHS

' Crocus and hyacinth, with rich inlay Broidered the ground, more coloured than with stone Of costliest emblem.' - JOHN MILTON

It would be well for us to speak of this grand Easter flower as the Oriental Hyacinth, its scientific title being Hyacinthus Orientalis, and the common ones, of Garden Hyacinth, or Bedding Hyacinth, obviously insufficient.

Plants known as Grape Hyacinths, Spanish Hyacinths, Woodland Hyacinths, Tassel, and Feather Hyacinths, will be described in later chapters, as Muscari, Scillas, etc., and the giant Hyacinthus Candicans as a Galtonia. We will deal now only with the Oriental Hyacinth, double and single, and the dainty little Roman, Italian, and other Miniature Hyacinths. The last are obtainable in most of the colours of the big Hyacinths, except salmon, mauve, purple, maroon, and orange. They are useful because they bloom just a little after the early white Roman, and before the Hyacinth proper, and can be treated like the former, except that bulbs must be rather further apart in the ground, and not placed as closely in pots, boxes, etc.

Outdoor Hyacinth Culture

The outdoor culture of Oriental Hyacinths is simple. Success, however, is dependent upon the obtaining of sound bulbs of sufficient age ; therefore the purchase of cheap collections is seldom satisfactory. Yet Bedding Hyacinths need not be Gold Medal Hyacinths, any more than a bedding Viola need be as large, or handsome, as a Show Pansy.

For Hyacinth culture in beds, and borders, use any good garden loam that has been some time previously enriched with well-decayed manure. Rank manure must not be encountered by these, or any other, bulbs. If a heavy soil has to be put up with, plenty of river-bed, or clean road-side, sand must be incorporated. The position must be open and sunny. Plant in November, or December, when the soil is neither too dry, nor too wet, but crumbles easily between finger and thumb. Place bulbs 8 inches or more apart, 3 or 4 inches below the surface. Strew 4 inches of coco-nut-fibre refuse over the bed. Chopped furze, or heather, or the softest cinderash may be used instead, and I knew one grower who always collected the husks of beech-mast for this purpose. In Holland beds are often covered by straw, tan, or reeds, but these materials are apt to go mouldy. Hyacinths are hardy enough to stand
moderate frosts, but severe ones sometimes cause the bulbs to rot, or the embryo flower-spikes to fail.

Keep the ground pricked over, by hoe or spud.

As a flower fades it should be picked off. The plants must live out until the leaves are yellow and crisp. Then they should be lifted, laid on the flooring of an airy shed, or room, to dry : after which the remains of stalks and foliage can be twisted off them.

Most persons store these bulbs in dry chaff, bran, shavings, or sand ; the old method was to lay them, bottom upwards, peaks through the mesh of trelliswoodwork, or wire-netting, shelves.

Any damp or diseased portions must be cut away before storing, and the wounds rubbed with sand.

Except in abnormal early droughts, outdoor Hyacinths should not be watered, but liquid manure may be given, once or twice, when flower spikes are forming and colouring, not when they have developed fully.

Hyacinth Culture in Pots Indoors

For Hyacinth culture in pots bulbs should be ordered that florists will recommend for the purpose, as all varieties are not similarly successful. The compost should consist of equal portions of fibrous loam, old manure chopped fine, and about a sixth part of coarse sand. Place the bulbs, in November or December, almost one-third of their depth exposed, setting the soil firmly round them. Three may occupy a six-inch pot.

Make up a bed of cinder-ashes in a frame, on the floor of an unheated glasshouse, or on a piece of ground by a south-facing wall, and plunge the pots in this material, so that the bulbs have a threeor four-inch covering. Examine in about two months' time, but keep covered until there is an inch, or rather more, of growth visible. Remove pots then to the greenhouse, frame, or room windows, but accustom the plants gradually to full light.

The temperature for them should be from 50 to 60 for the first week, then it should not be more than 65, as the best blooms are always from plants not forced quickly.

Let the foliage die down, then put the bulbs into a border somewhere in the garden, for they will be scarcely worth keeping after they have flowered in heat.

There are many flower-lovers who delight in the culture of Hyacinths in glasses.

The first rule to observe is the filling the proper shaped ' glasses ' with fresh rain-water. If that cannot be had, use main-tap water, which will be safer than water that has stood for days in a rain-water butt. The second rule is to poise bulbs almost invisibly above the water, not touching it. Wire supports are sold for the purpose. The water will need changing every three weeks, or even oftener if it is found to be clouded, or to smell offensive.

When to Plant Hyacinths Indoors

Place the bulbs in September, October, or November. Stand the glasses in a dark but airy cupboard until roots have fully formed.

Remove glasses, by degrees, into full light and warmth, of window or conservatory. Turn them round daily. Occasionally moisten the bulb and its growth, either by a sponge or a scent-spray. Plant bulbs out of doors when the flowering is over.

The culture of Hyacinths in moss-fibre and seashell is always interesting.

Use the mixed materials quite moist, but not dripping wet, in any bowls or vases, with a lump or two of charcoal at the bottom, and three pea-sized pieces in the rest of the compost.

Lay the bulbs on the fibre, press them lightly into it, fill up with water, stand in any airy, semi-dark place. Examine once a week, giving more water when the fibre seems dry on the top. Failure will have to be recorded if the fibre ever dries up at the base : yet bulbs will rot if kept too wet.

Excess of moisture can be got rid of by laying the receptacles on their sides, slanted so that surplus water can filter out.

Remove the Hyacinths into light when growth is well started.

Double and Single Hyacinths should not be planted or potted together because they are unlikely to bloom simultaneously. Some growers obj ect to cinders coming in contact with bulbs. Cinder-ashes, however, are soft, and always safe.

The pure white Roman Hyacinths, the coloured Italian, and other miniature species, can be grown well in sheltered beds, borders, and rockeries, but are generally potted to supply winter bloom. They, too, may be cultivated in moss-fibre and sea-shell, and the directions given above can be followed, except that these smaller bulbs require less space, but should be an inch below the compost when in pots, though merely inserted up to their tips when in fibre. Pottings from July to December, at sevenor ten-day intervals, will result in a prolonged harvest season. Bulbs of Roman Hyacinths are no use after flowering not even for the borders.

Failures are frequent with Hyacinths both outside and in. This can be avoided by realizing that the bulbs must not become loosened in their hold upon soil, must never be sharply frozen, must be protected from rabbits in the open, their young growth from strong gas fumes in the rooms. Also it should be recognized that the blossoms cannot develop or open in a very dry atmosphere. If the scent-spray is not used let indoor Hyacinths be put under cloches, or other glass shades, for a night, occasionally, after being watered. They have brittle stems, which obliges the gardener to supply green sticks and ties when they grow in windy places.

They become too lanky when in pots or glasses placed too far below the window's chief light. They lean sideways unless often turned round in their receptacles.

Massed beds of self-coloured Hyacinths yield dazzling displays in garden landscapes ; beds of two colours or one brilliant hue with white, are especially striking, and they submit themselves well to pattern forming if the varieties are judiciously chosen, a task in which the bulb vendors should be consulted.

Colors of Hyacinths

• Dark
• White
• White
• Dark Rose
• White
• Deep rose
  

Many varieties are unsuited to culture in water, or fibre and shell.

Single Hyacinths, in addition to Romans and Miniatures, are more popular as cut flowers than formerly, so may be grown fairly close together, in frames, or sunk beds protected by mats or ' lights/ or in large boxes in greenhouses, for this purpose.

Porch tops are suitable for glorious spring displays : a fact BOLD of which town dwellers would do wisely to take notice. Window boxes and ornamental tubs and urns can have no fairer fillings. I know one house where, annually, white Hyacinths make a magnificent show thus employed, all the receptacles being of red terra-cotta. Other arrangements could combine blue and lilac flowers and yellow pottery, rose and carmine with grey, orange, salmon, and scarlet, with white.

Instead of commonplace beds, in poor grass surrounds, in front gardens, how charming would be sunk beds of stone sides or rockery, between breadths of crazy paving, with every spring made brilliant by the Oriental Hyacinth, to be followed by summers and autumns of Iris, Ranunculus and Gladioli displays !

Our summer-houses ought to be adorned by Hyacinths, in window boxes and door tubs, also closely environing borders, for the perfume in the open is always appreciated.

To attempt to recommend the best varieties for the garden would be merely to provoke contradiction, but gardeners who want a few admirable specimens might do worse than order the following :

DOUBLE OUTDOOR HYACINTHS

THE FIRST. Dark rose.

SIR JOSEPH PAXTON. Early deep carmine.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. Deep pink.

GROOTVORST. Blush.

MARGOT. Pure white.

BOUQUET ROYAL. White, extra double.

ISABELLA. Blush-white.

GARRICK. Brilliant Hue.

PRINCE ALBERT. Black-purple.

LORD WELLINGTON. Light blue, with dark centre.

DELICATA. Pale blue.

SUNFLOWER. Salmon-yellow.

MINERVA. Orange.

JAUNE SUPREME. Gold.

SINGLE OUTDOOR HYACINTHS

CITY OF HAARLEM. Primrose.

KING OF THE YELLOWS. Deep yellow.

SONORA. Apricot.

MARCHIONESS OF LORNE. Salmon-orange.

SIR WILLIAM MANSFIELD. Purple-mauve.

DISTINCTION. Maroon.

SIR EDWIN LANDSEER. Deep violet.

LORD MAYO. Dark violet, with while eye.

LAURA. Pale mauve.

KING ALFRED. Plum purple.

PRINCESS WILHELMINA. Bright Hue.

MASTERPIECE. Dark Hue.

SCHOTEL. Light blue. CHRISTMAS BLUE. Azure.

Early. ARENTINE ARENDSEN. White.

Early. QUEEN OF THE WHITES. Pure

white.

GENERAL VETTER. Cream. QUEEN OF THE PINKS. Rose. ORANGE QUEEN. Orange-rose. PINK PERFECTION. Pale pink. KING OF THE REDS. Carmine,

with white eye. GENERAL PELISSIER.. Bright

crimson. CHRISTMAS RED. Early red.

A FEW SPECIAL-COLOUR HYACINTHS FOR POTS.

LINNAEUS. Light scarlet. Single. LA VICTORIE. Real scarlet.

Single. SOLFATERRE. Orange red.

Single. VUURBAAK. Dark crimson.

Single. CAVAIGNAC. Salmon, with rose

stripe. Single.

GIGANTEA. Rose. Single. REGINA VICTORIA. Salmon. Double.

PRINCE OF WATERLOO, White. Double.

ALBA SUPERBISSIMA. White. Single.

GRANDEUR A MERVEILLE. Pale blush. Single.

BLONDIN. Silvery blue. Single.

IVANHOE. Very dark blue. Single.

VAN SPEYK Lilac. Double.

BLOCKSBERG. Light blue. Double.

IDA. Yellow. Single. KING MENELIK. Nearly Single.

The beds and borders of Hyacinths ought to be given a mulch of decayed manure, preferably cow manure, in February : the old coco-nut-fibre refuse being drawn aside first, then returned, with some fresh, as a cover for the unsightly manure.

It is an admirable plan to grow Hyacinths in what are known as basket-beds, raised beds, that is to say, surrounded by lattice wood, strips of painted wire netting, or held up by stakes of rustic wood. Sloping beds and borders are also excellent, to ensure perfect drainage.

For room ornaments Hyacinths can be grown in wicker, or rush, baskets, that are first lined with old turves, inverted, to prevent the compost from escaping.

Hyacinth bulbs from the garden may be stored for any purpose.

Many bulbs will be found to have made offsets : these should be broken away, at re-planting season, and planted by themselves, in rich, warm borders, or nursery beds. They will flower in two or three years, in all probability.

It is not likely that many gardeners will desire to grow Hyacinths from seed. However, in case advice on the subject may be welcome to the few I will quote from an antique Garden Guide.

' Seed being rarely procured from double Hyacinths must be saved from those which are single, or semidouble, saved from such plants as have good characters, and should not be gathered till it has become black and ripe, indicated by the yellow colour of the seed vessel and its beginning to open. Sow immediately, in pots or pans, and place these in a hotbed. As soon as the young plants have produced two leaves, they should be potted singly into thumb pots, or " small sixties " (sixty to a cast of pots). Leave the summit of each young bulb on a level with the surface of the soil. They must then be watered, and shaded for a few days. When the bulbs begin to go deeper into the soil, they should be repotted into large sixties. The shiftings must be repeated when necessary till the plants are at length established in twenty-four sized pots.'

A more modern plan is to sow in boxes of sandy soil in cold frames, or out of doors, in September.

Yet another is to sow directly seed ripens, in sandy rich beds out of doors, protect from all extremes of weather, and mulch with fresh compost occasionally, until the third year, when bulbs are lifted and replanted elsewhere to blossom. Some may bloom before they are four years old, though a Hyacinth bulb is not reckoned mature till it is seven.

Late supplies of Hyacinths can be gained by ' retarding ' the October-bought bulbs, by shutting them in air-tight tins, without bran, chaff, or any other covering substance, and standing the tins in cold cellars, or a refrigerator, till January or February, when potting should be done by the usual methods.

It is interesting to recollect that old gardeners of renown used to insist on using extra deep pots for this flower, believing that great length of root is needed to support fine foliage and bloom-spikes.

Roughened, or ' scrubby '-looking Hyacinth bulbs are often more satisfactory and valuable than are smooth, silky ones.

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