Hyacinth flower of the family asparagus. It is a perennial plant that can grow in the gardens and greenhouses.
Habitat: Mediterranean region, South of Asia, Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey.
In Europe, the flower began to cultivate in the 16th century. In the 18th century it was known 2,000 varieties which are different in color and shape of flowers.
The long period of flowering and beautiful hyacinth`s flowers attracting more and more flower growers every year.
Hyacinth in our time commercially are grown in the UK and the Netherlands. Its root is a whole bulb. Hyacinth in home conditions is grown for forcing.
There are many flowers with different colors and shades of pink, mauve, purple, blue, white, cream, etc. There are varieties with variegated colors and double flowers.
It is period life up to 10 years. The plant can bloom in the middle of winter in greenhouses.
Description
It is a small flowering plant which reaches a height of 1 ft (25-30 cm). It has elongated and fleshy leaves. This is one-piece root of bulb 6 cm diameter.
Peduncle is smooth, vertical and slightly pubescent. Racemose flowers have up to 30 of flowers bell-shaped which are formed at the end of the flower stalk. From one bulb grows only one flower spike.
The flowering period lasts 3 weeks.
In the root is contained oxalic acid which may cause redness and itch, if it gets on the skin surface.
If you want to enjoy flowering hyacinth in winter, you will need to create certain conditions for the content of the flower: low temperature, high humidity, minimal watering, dimly lit rooms.
How to Grow and Care for Hyacinth
Lighting and location
Place for hyacinth is chosen with good lighting where there is no wind and draught. Do not choose locations for planting in deepening or near trees.
- Heavy rains or melting snow leads to stagnation waters. The root of the plant begins to rot and it dies. Ground waters must not rise above 20 in (0.5 meters).
- If you plant hyacinths near other shrubs and trees, it will lead to lack of nutrients. Branchy roots of trees that grow near hyacinth will absorb the large part of fertilizers from the soil.
The composition of the soil
You need to create a nutrient soil with a lot of rotted humus. Do not use fresh manure.
You can buy ready-made soil composition or make their own. For this you need: humus, turf and ground sheet, compost, peat and sand. All components are taken in equal proportions. Ph of soil should be no lower than 6.5. Acidic soils or slightly acid soils are not suitable.
Transplant outside
You need to prepare the soil before planting. You need to take humus, peat, sand, leaf and turf land and place it to a depth of 20 in (0.5 m). Manure is only used decomposed.
If the climate is temperate, the bulbs are planted no earlier than the beginning of October otherwise hyacinth prematurely may begin to active growth in winter and he will die.
The bulb may not have time to take root before freezing of the soil when to plant the flower too late autumn.
You need to pour a layer of a few cm of river sand before landing of plants, then to plant on top of the bulbs and fill up the missing ground. This process technology should be done if the soil in your garden is filled with water.
Hyacinth is usually planted in a row. The distance between plants is 9-10 in (20-25 cm).
The plant must be protected with the beginning of the frost. For shelter from the frost, you can use several materials: sawdust, dried peat (bulbs sprinkled in full), rotted manure, leaves.
In the early spring shoots appear. If there is no frost at night the shelter can be removed.
Watering
Hyacinth during the summer is abundantly watered. The soil should be kept moist. Flower in winter is almost no watered. The plant should be watered when the ground is too over dried.
Fertilizing
Gardeners are recommended the use of complex chemical fertilizers for flowering plants 2 times a month during vegetation. Fertilizer is used in a dry kind, or is diluted in water for watering.
Reproduction
Hyacinth is propagated babies (subsidiaries bulbs). They are separated from the main plant and are planted separately after their complete of maturation.
The process of reproduction is quite slow. During the year appears up to 4 babes. Gardeners are used for rapid multiplication in home conditions artificial methods: incision and cut out the bottoms.
Previously the bulbs are washed with running water, are treated with a weak solution of potassium permanganate and are dried 2-3 days. The temperature must be 70° F (22° C).
Cut out the bottoms
In the spring, before the start of the vegetation period you need to cut out the bottom in a bulb with a teaspoon (scapula). The bulbs are placed in containers a cut up. The temperature must be 70° F (22° C). After 3 months appear babies up to 40 units in a place cut.
In the next stage the bulb is planted in the ground and is covered with plastic wrap on top. The temperature inside is held up to 50° F (10° C).
Plant babes begin to grow at low temperatures and on them appear first leaves.
Bulb is taken out of ground, separated babies, and is planted to full maturity after vegetation period. First flower stalks emerge from the young plants, after 3-4 years.
Undercut bottoms
The procedure is started after the active growth period. On the surface of the bulb is made of 4-6 incisions, whose depth is 0.19 in (5 mm). Then the bulbs are placed in box incisions up.
The first flower sprouts with leaves appear after 3 months. Unlike the first reproduction method, the number of daughter bulbs will be considerably less (15 units), but their sizes are much larger. Hyacinth for the first time can be blooming already in the 2nd year.
Diseases and pests, difficulties Care
Hyacinth is resistant to pests and diseases. Pests are often attack him during forcing, or if you keep the flower in the hothouse environment.
Hyacinth is attacked by a tick, aphid, armyworm, fusariosis.
Causes and symptoms of various diseases:
- The larvae of pests existed when buying flowers
- The composition of the soil is incorrect (heavy or sour)
- Short flower spike and flowers are disclosed in the leaf rosette - inadequate watering, short dormancy period during the forcing, sudden climate change without prior adaptation.
- Flower spike drops out of the bulb - bulb has dried or it began to rot during dormancy.
- Watering and humidity wrong.
- If the flower spike grew curves started to fade or to turn yellow - a sign of defeat by pests.
- The soil was not frizzled before planting the plants. A bulb should be treated with phosphorus-containing drugs.
- The bulb is rotting and felt an unpleasant a pungent smell - is the appearance of yellow bacterial rots. A plant usually is slowed in growth. Bulbs that are infected must be destroyed.
- Leaves turn yellow - there are several reasons: draft, watering is broken, is not enough light, the soil badly passes air, dry air.
- Flower buds are deformed and fall off - maybe water drip onto the flowers, high ambient temperature.
- Flower spike began to rot - stagnation moisture in the pallet or too abundant watering. You need to check the serviceability of the drainage system. Possibly the water does not pass through the hole in the bottom of the pot.
- The leaves are deformed - is too long a period of rest, or hyacinth is in a very dark location.
- Hyacinth is not blooming: the bulbs are too small in diameter (less than 2 in or 5 cm), they are weak, or the temperature is too high for the flower.