Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Bulbs => Bulbs General => Topic started by: Gail on March 27, 2023, 09:53:29 PM

Title: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Gail on March 27, 2023, 09:53:29 PM
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;
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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Sky Planet'

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Hyacinthus orientalis, double blue Roman

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Hyacinthus orientalis, double pink Roman
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Gail on March 27, 2023, 09:58:07 PM
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Hyacinthus orientalis 'L'Ophir'

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Grand Monarque'

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Sunflower'

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It really must be the most fragrant National Collection in the country...
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Maggi Young on March 28, 2023, 10:18:23 AM
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!
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: fermi de Sousa on March 30, 2023, 11:03:24 AM
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 ;D
Here is one we got last year called 'Yellowstone' flowering in September - I'm hoping they rebloom this spring,
cheers
fermi
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Gail on March 30, 2023, 08:35:04 PM
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.

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'City of Haarlem'

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Gypsy Princess'

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Helena'

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Hermes'
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Gail on March 30, 2023, 08:46:43 PM
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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Prins Hendrik'

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Yellow Queen'

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Yellowstone'

and here's that mermaid's tail;
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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Skyline' in bud

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Hyacinthus orientalis 'Skyline' mature
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: ashley on March 31, 2023, 12:46:20 PM
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 ;)
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Gail on March 31, 2023, 09:47:24 PM
'Blue Festival' is a pretty open-spike one, although surprisingly it does flop as much as some of the heavier type.
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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;
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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.
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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...
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Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: ashley on April 02, 2023, 12:16:51 PM
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) 8)
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Maggi Young on April 06, 2023, 05:54:09 PM
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


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Avon's photo of 'Gloria Mundi'


https://www.avonbulbs.co.uk/
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Gail on April 06, 2023, 07:12:26 PM
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...
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Stefan B. on April 07, 2023, 07:27:21 AM
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?
(https://i.imgur.com/UjduO6b.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/Ia74owU.jpg)

(https://i.imgur.com/7PIQMMC.jpg)
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: partisangardener on April 07, 2023, 08:26:32 AM
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
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: partisangardener on April 07, 2023, 08:34:39 AM
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
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: partisangardener on April 07, 2023, 08:46:12 AM
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. :D
Title: Re: Hyacinthus 2023
Post by: Gail on April 07, 2023, 08:55:37 AM
Oh, that is exciting for you Stefan and certainly looks like 'Gloria Mundi'. Apparently there used to be huge numbers of double cultivars, often with contrasting coloured 'eyes'.

Thank you for the memory jog of old threads Axel, very interesting. And I was really interested to see your bulbs forming on the stem. I'd just bought a copy of Geoff Stebbing's Spring Bulbs (Batsford, 2005) for the chapters on Hyacinths and he speculated that they may form bulblets on leaf cuttings like Lachenalia, so I was going to give that a go but I may keep some flowers I've cut to see what happens with them...
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