Hyacinths - Hyacinthus orientalis - Spring Plant Gallery
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Hyacinths - Hyacinthus orientalis. I am building up quite a display of hyacinths in the garden though none were bought for planting directly in the soil. They were all bought in August or September to be planted in containers to be forced for early spring, just after Christmas.
At this time in the dark days of winter they are a source of magical time travel, the scent takes you from dreary days with a grey sky at 30 feet to the bright sunshine and scents of spring like when this picture was taken in the first few days of April.
When they have performed in the house, the remains of the flower spikes are cut off and they are put straight outside in a sunny but sheltered position and kept watered to help build the bulb strength up. As and when I get around to it, I plant them in the soil at which point they look a bit ill and then the leaves fade as it progresses towards the summer. The next year, they often don't flower but produce leaves only as the forcing process takes it out of the bulb, though I have long forgotten about them and they just blend in. Eventually the second year after being put out they start to produce magnificent flowering spikes like this one again and fill the air with scent. I commend the process to those reading.
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