At this time of year I always assume the last thing most people want to hear is the word 'Christmas'. Me? I'm not all that fussed about Christmas despite loving the time off with family. I LOVE winter though. Call me strange but there's nothing better than crunching over the lawn on the way to the nursery. Being at home with our fires lit, mugs of tea, all our animals in their beds and the nursery locked up. Plus, really there's nothing more bracing than walking the dog in truly horizontal rain to make you feel infinitely more human. I think it must be something to do with the quality of the air....
However, this is not about my particularly peculiar love of wet weather and poor Disco who is forced to come out with me. It's about how to fill your home with beautiful scented Hyacinth and to trouble shoot when they aren't quite doing what they are supposed to!
Hyacinths
No matter how much I love them, I can't actually have any scented flowers in the house as they give me terrible migraines. Silly really, a horticulturalist having awful Hay Fever!
Nevertheless, when growing for Christmas you must plant them mid-to-late September for Hyacinth to obediently flower at some point through the seasonal period. If, like me, you do them as Christmas presents my advice is to plant them early-to-mid October so they come in to flower once you have given them as a gift.
'We love this idea' I hear you say, thinking about all your plant loving friends who would love a whimsical Hyacinth basket for Christmas. But, what do you need to make this happen? Here are my top tips and a few notes to help trouble shoot where things may have gone wrong in past years.
- Always use a Prepared Hyacinth if you are planting for indoor displays. For outdoor use you can ignore the entire of this article... Hyacinths need to go through an extended period of cold to flower. So, bulb companies 'prepare' select bulbs by chilling them for the perfect amount of time to encourage them to flower when you want them to.
- You can use:
- Glass Hyacinth forcers
- Bowls filled with bulb fibre and moss
- Push in cocktail sticks and balance them in tumblers
- Even dip them in wax after soaking them in water for a day (I find this one slightly macabre strangely)
- A Shoe - I'm being facetious now! Honestly though, whatever you think would look good with bulbs flowering out out of it goes! Personally, I love finding funny little bowls and glass jars in charity shops which have a fabulously shabby chic look.
- Put the bulbs in to the container, leaving the top (pointy bit...) free to shoot away nicely. You don't want to completely submerge them if you are growing them in a water filled glass container, just let the very bottom of the bulb tough the water.
- Water them. Strangely this is a point I seem to need to remind people, especially about shrubs, but I think it's probably relevant here too. If you have hyacinth in glass jars filled with water, occasionally change over the water and if you have them in compost just don't let them dry out completely!
- Best to be started in a cool, dark, frost free place. Somewhere like a garage or cupboard in a unheated room is the best! I empty out my spare-glass-jars shelf in my utility room cupboard for this and it works perfectly!
- Hyacinths take 10 - 14 weeks to flower by 'forcing' them in this way.
It really is that simple! Here are my top tips for trouble shooting.
- 'My Hyacinth always flop over!' - They are being kept too warm, your home is much warmer than spring would be. Try keep them as cool as possible. (Without freezing them)
- 'My Hyacinth bowls always look so messy.' - I used to find this when I grew different colours in the same pot. I recommend to do the same variety for every pot as even if there is only a week between each one starting they get a bit raggedy by the end.
- 'My Hyacinth flowers are always so short.' - They have been brought in to the heat and light a bit too early. There's no way to solve this once they have started, but you know for next year!
As a final tip, try planting different pots of bulbs, a love a table arrangement of Hyacinth pots mixed with Muscari pots. - They are a very cute and rather whimsical combination, I just recommend to keep them in pots that have a something in common, be it a texture colour or materiel.
