Hyacinthus 2023

[Gail]

I don't think anyone has started a Hyacinthus thread this year and I know some people are a bit snooty about the cultivars but I just love the scent and would happily grow a field full if I had the space. You have to imagine the scent but this is what Alan Shipp's field near Cambridge looked like yesterday;



Hyacinthus orientalis 'Sky Planet'


Hyacinthus orientalis, double blue Roman


Hyacinthus orientalis, double pink Roman

[Gail]

Hyacinthus orientalis 'L'Ophir'


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Grand Monarque'


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Sunflower'


It really must be the most fragrant National Collection in the country...

[Maggi Young]

What a shame we don't have a "scent" button. I love this scent - though it can be a tad overpowering in the house - outside en masse they must smell gorgeous!

[fermi de Sousa]

Hi Gail,
I love them as well and though the H. orientalis types are more graceful I still like the cultivars even though they can look as if they are made of plastic and would be useful for cleaning bottles
Here is one we got last year called 'Yellowstone' flowering in September - I'm hoping they rebloom this spring,
cheers
fermi

[Gail]

That looks a good clear yellow with you Fermi. I love the blues most, especially ones like Skyline, which does a fascinating colour change from genuine mermaid's tail turquoise in bud to soft baby blue when mature, but I was looking at the yellows at Alan's. They seem fairly similar in shade but I liked 'Helena' which has quite an open airy spike of flowers.


Hyacinthus orientalis 'City of Haarlem'


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Gypsy Princess'


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Helena'


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Hermes'

[Gail]

Hyacinthus orientalis 'Prins Hendrik'


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Yellow Queen'


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Yellowstone'

and here's that mermaid's tail;

Hyacinthus orientalis 'Skyline' in bud


Hyacinthus orientalis 'Skyline' mature

[ashley]

Lovely photos Gail and Fermi.  Thank you.
Generally I prefer looser, more open spikes such as the 'Romans', especially blues and whites/creams, but am less taken by the doubles.
However it takes all sorts

[Gail]

'Blue Festival' is a pretty open-spike one, although surprisingly it does flop as much as some of the heavier type.

Hyacinthus orientalis 'Blue Festival'

But even the highly bred types tend to relax a bit after a few years in the hurly-burly of a busy border;

Hyacinth Aiolos and Delft Blue

If you like the less fussy kind I strongly recommend 'Anastasia' which is to the violet end of blue with nice dark stems. Clumps up well, is very graceful and rarely flops.


I've used it to edge my sweet violet 'lawn' and the combined daphne, violet and hyacinth scent on a (sadly somewhat rare) warm day is intoxicating...

[ashley]

Very beautiful Gail.  Yes Anastasia does well here too, and utterly reliable from year to year even with our wet winters.
Your wonderful viola lawn with surround must be a sight to see (& smell)

[Maggi Young]

As well as reading about Avon Bulbs' Spring Sale, I have enjoyed learning about  'Gloria Mundi' and an historical hyacinthus variety ....https://www.avonbulbs.co.uk/autumn-planted-bulbs/hyacinthus/hyacinthus-gloria-mundi?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=April%202023&utm_content=April%202023+CID_dbf4690a5a333268dd38fe5971e22bb5&utm_source=SelectMailer&utm_term=full%20story



Avon's photo of 'Gloria Mundi'


https://www.avonbulbs.co.uk/

[Gail]

It is a good story isn't it. It is the tales about plants and the people who love them that I find so fascinating and it is lovely to be able to grow something with such a long history and to help keep it alive...

[Stefan B.]

A few years ago a woman who has a garden gave me some hyacinth bulbs. She told me that she has had it for a long time, it was given to her by her neighbor 20 years ago. I searched a lot on the internet to find pictures, but nothing came up, but now Maggie has pleasantly surprised me with this intriguing story about "Gloria Mundi" Here are my pictures,
what do you think?

[partisangardener]

Old they may be, but got lots of vigor. What beauties they are.
I found in abandoned garden in western France some bulbs which I could not identify without any trace of flower only leafs.
They turned out beeing a white variant of Roman Hyacinth.
How many Lazarus plants will be in wait for a keen eye.

https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4707.0

[partisangardener]

From cut flowers I had sometimes with my Roman Hyacinths small bulbs developing at the cut stem. Maybe this works with "Gloria Mundi" too.
https://forum.garten-pur.de/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=51540.0;attach=584058;image

[partisangardener]

I discovered this because while flowering some fruits developed in the vase. Since I had this on Galanthus with fertile seeds, I left the stems in the vase.
There were few seeds in the fruits and this tiny bulbs at the lower end of the stem.