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In spring, hyacinths are among the first to bloom in the garden - they bloom their buds around mid-April. These delicate flowers have many beautiful colors, their varieties differ in terms of flowering and the structure of inflorescences: today there are three types of hyacinths and more than five hundred varieties. Hyacinth herbaceous plants are intended for open ground, but growers grow them in pots, containers, baskets. This versatile flower will be a wonderful decoration for a garden, flower bed, windowsill or balcony. Only the capricious nature of bulbous hyacinths upsets, but this can also be dealt with if you follow the rules of planting and care.
About when to plant hyacinths in open ground: in spring or autumn, how to plant them correctly and how to care for these flowers will be discussed in this article. Here you can also find information on how to repot and propagate hyacinths, how to feed them and where to store the bulbs until the next planting.
Description of colors
Growers of hyacinths in the open field have been practiced by flower growers all over the world for more than four hundred years. The Middle East, Mediterranean countries, North Africa are considered the birthplace of spring flowers. Dutch breeders have put so much effort into spreading these plants across all continents that today the Netherlands can be safely called their second homeland. Exactly Millions of bulbs are sent annually from Holland, in this country breeders are breeding all new varieties of hyacinths, working to expand their shades and types.
Initially, hyacinths were assigned to the Liliaceae family, some scientists identified a separate species for them - Hyacinths. Modern botany claims that these bulbous flowers should be attributed to the Asparagus family, they are perennials, and in Russian the name of hyacinths sounds like "rain flowers".
The leaves of hyacinths are pointed, dense. The flowers are collected in racemose inflorescences, the shape of which can be cylindrical or conical. Perianths are bell-shaped funnels with petals bent outward. The fruit of the plant is a seed with a thin skin.
Classification of varieties
The basis for breeding varieties and breeding new hyacinth hybrids are three types of these flowers:
- Oriental.
- Litvinov.
- Transcaspian.
It is also customary to divide flower varieties into simple and terry, depending on the structure and shape of the inflorescences. Early, middle and late varieties are distinguished according to the flowering time. Hyacinths of any type usually bloom for 12 to 25 days - the duration of flowering depends on the air temperature and solar activity.
Depending on the color of the variety, it is customary to divide it into six more groups:
- blue and blue inflorescences (Perle Brillante, Marie, Queen of the blues);
- lilac varieties (Blue Magic, Indigo King, Bismarck);
- pink flowers (Moreno, Anna Marie, Gertruda);
- red hyacinths (Hollyhock, La Victoire, Tubcrgen's Scarlet);
- white varieties (Arentine Arendsen, Snow Crystal, Madam Sofie);
- yellow and orange inflorescences (Yellow Hammer, City of Haarlem, Orange Boven).
Features of growing bulbous flowers
Growing hyacinths is not an easy process. These flowers are quite capricious, they make special demands on the place of planting, soil composition, degree of humidity.Bulbous flowers also need constant care: several dressings, moderate watering, digging, storage and annual transplantation.
Buying bulbs
Growing any flowers begins with the purchase of planting material. Usually, hyacinths are propagated by bulbs, so the grower will need to purchase high-quality and healthy bulbs of these flowers.
To identify suitable bulb specimens for planting, it is necessary to identify the following signs in them:
- the diameter of the bulb should be medium - no more than 4-6 cm (in double and yellow varieties, as a rule, the bulbs are smaller);
- the size of a healthy bulb is usually 1.5 times the diameter of the bottom;
- outwardly, flower bulbs should be beautiful, glossy and clean;
- to the touch, the planting material is elastic, dense, without traces of rot and other lesions.
Site preparation
The transplant of purchased bulbs must be carried out correctly - the splendor and abundance of hyacinth flowering depends on this. One of the most important steps in growing these flowers is a properly chosen and well-prepared planting site.
Bulb hyacinth lovers should take into account the following features of these colors:
- The lighting on the site should be bright, but at the same time, direct sunlight will greatly reduce the flowering time of hyacinths. As a rule, they try to plant these flowers near trees or shrubs in order to prolong their flowering.
- The soil in the flower bed should be loose, well-drained, with neutral acidity. In heavy soils, it is imperative to add baking powder in the form of sand or peat. Sour soil must be limed with dolomite flour or other means.
- Groundwater should not lie close to the ground, since the "rain flower" does not tolerate waterlogging - the bulbs will rot. For the same reason, the place for planting these flowers is chosen on a slope, high beds are created, and drainage is taken care of.
- Strong winds and drafts are also dangerous for delicate flowers, so it is recommended to plant bulbs near natural defenses (hedge, wall, tree or shrub).
- You can not fertilize hyacinths with fresh organic matter (neither at the time of transplantation, nor later), as this often leads to the development of fungal infections that pose a great danger to bulbous plants.
Landing in the ground
As a rule, planting hyacinths in open ground in the spring is not performed - in central Russia, the bulbs are transplanted in the fall. The most suitable time for this is the period from the end of September to the second decade of October. It is very important here to plant hyacinths in the ground not too early and not too late: in the first case, the flowers will start to grow and freeze with frost, the second situation is dangerous because the hyacinths will not have time to root properly and will not survive the winter either.
It is recommended to prepare the soil for planting hyacinths in advance - two months before transplanting, the site is dug up, having previously scattered fertilizers on the ground. If you do not dig up the ground in advance, there is a high risk of bulbs falling through during soil shrinkage.
Fertilizers for "rain flowers" should be complex. Per square meter you will need:
- 70 grams of superphosphate;
- a glass of wood ash;
- 250 grams of limestone (if the acidity of the soil exceeds 6.5);
- a bucket of compost or humus;
- peat and river sand, depending on the composition of the soil.
The bulbs should be planted to a depth that is three times their diameter. For example, onions up to 5 cm in size are planted to a depth of 12-15 cm, for larger bulbs you will need holes 15-18 cm deep.
The recommended spacing between adjacent hyacinth bulbs is 15-20 cm. In order for the flowers to grow evenly, they are planted at the same depth and onions of approximately the same size are chosen for each row.
It is best to plant hyacinths in a sand jacket. To do this, three centimeters of river sand should be poured onto the bottom of each hole during planting. Then the bulb is placed on the sand of the bottoms down (do not press!). A little sand is poured on top again, and then the hole is already covered with soil. After transplanting, the flowers need to be watered lightly.
Care advice
Taking care of hyacinths is not easy - these flowers are capricious and demanding. But with the right approach and little attention from the grower, it will be enough for a lush and long flowering.
Bulb flower care should consist of the following steps:
- Weeds in the flowerbed must be removed, as hyacinth does not tolerate such a "neighborhood".
- The soil is regularly loosened, and in order not to do this, you can mulch the flower bed with organic matter.
- Watering the flowers is required only in dry and hot weather. Hyacinth is the case when excess moisture is more dangerous than lack of moisture. The depth of soil soaking during watering should be 15-20 cm.
- Feed "rain flowers" should be three times per season. How to feed, the florist decides. The following scheme is optimal: after the sprouts appear, ammonium nitrate can be added; during the budding period, nitrate is mixed with superphosphate and potassium chloride; when the flowering period ends, potassium and nitrate are added in equal shares.
After flowering, the stems of the hyacinths should be pruned, but the flowers continue to be watered and cared for until the leaves are completely dry.
Digging and storing bulbs
When the leaves of the flowers are dry, their bulbs must be dug up and stored until the next planting (in the fall). Usually, the tubers are dug out at the end of June, but the exact timing depends on the flowering time of a particular variety.
Dug out onions should be washed and inspected for infection or mechanical damage. It is better to disinfect the selected high-quality planting material by placing it in a rich pink solution of potassium permanganate for 10-15 minutes.
After disinfection, the tubers of hyacinths are dried, dry scales are separated from them, and the roots are cut off. Now the planting material needs to be folded into tight fabric bags, opaque plastic containers or cardboard boxes.
For the first 1.5-2 months, hyacinths are stored in a dark place with a temperature of about 23-25 degrees. Subsequently, they need to be removed to a cooler place where the air temperature does not exceed 17 degrees (a dry basement is suitable).
To do this, cross-shaped cuts are made at the bottom of the largest bulbs - after a while several children will appear there. These processes are separated and grown in pots for several years.
Conclusion
Hyacinths are beautiful and very showy flowers, as evidenced by the photos from the article. In addition to their catchy appearance, these plants have another advantage - early flowering, which occurs in mid-April.
If you choose the right varieties of "rain colors", you can enjoy their delicate colors for a couple of months. The only difficulty in growing is the annual repotting and storage of the bulbs.
