Hyacinth, also known as Oriental Lily and Five-Color Daffodil, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the lily family and hyacinth genus. It is renowned as an early spring flowering bulb, and a significant potted flower variety.
There are over 2000 horticultural varieties of hyacinths, mainly categorized into “Dutch” and “Roman” types, with Dutch being the most cultivated. Common hyacinth types are distinguished by flower color, divided mainly into white, pink, red, orange, yellow, blue, purple, and black. Each color category varies in flower color, plant type, and blooming period.
The hyacinth (scientific name: Hyacinthus orientalis L.) is a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant. Its bulb resembles an egg, covered with membranous skin that correlates in color with the flower. It looks like garlic before blooming.
The plant originated in the Mediterranean coast and Asia Minor and is reputed to be the most fragrant among all flowering plants. It enjoys ample sunlight and prefers a rather moist growing environment with good drainage and fertile sandy loam.
Worldwide, there are over 2000 horticultural varieties of hyacinths, primarily split into “Dutch” and “Roman” types. The former includes authentic species, with most growing only one flower stem per plant, showcasing a robust posture and larger flowers. The latter group consists mainly of mutant hybrids, each plant capable of producing two or three flower stems, showing a weak stature and finer flowers. The Dutch hyacinths are favored by most consumers.
There are over 2000 hyacinth varieties. Some of the most common ones include Ice Crystal, Carnegie, Anna Marie, Pink Pearl, Purple Crystal, Wood, Fender, Manhattan, Harlem City, Gypsy Princess, Love Prince, Jenny Baus, Blue Armor, Gypsy Queen, Odysseus, Blue Pearl, Delft Blue, Saigon Miss, Purple Touch, Derby Lady, and Marconi.
Hyacinths prefer sunlight and cold resistance, suitable for growth in cool, moist environments with loose, fertile sandy soil, and abhor waterlogging. They favor warm, moist winters, cool, slightly dry summers, and environments with ample sunlight or semi-shade. They are fond of fertile, well-drained sandy loam, suitable for planting in the ground, potted, or water cultivation.
Hyacinths root in the fall, new buds sprout in early spring, bloom in March, fruit ripens in late May, and the above-ground parts wither and enter dormancy in early June. During the dormant period, flower bud differentiation occurs at an optimal temperature of around 25°C, lasting about a month. After bud differentiation, there should be a low-temperature phase of about two months before elongation growth, with temperatures not exceeding 13°C.
During growth, the bulb’s roots grow best at a low temperature of 2-6°C. Bud germination optimal temperature is 5-10°C, leaf growth optimal temperature is 5-12°C, and 15-18°C is most advantageous during bud initiation and blooming. The bulb’s storage temperature is 20-28°C, ideally at 25°C, which is optimal for flower bud differentiation. It can withstand brief frost.
Hyacinths are native to the southern Mediterranean coast of Europe, Asia Minor, and the Netherlands, but are now cultivated worldwide. Wild species grow in the limestone regions of Western and Central Asia, at altitudes above 2600 meters.
The Netherlands is the primary producer of hyacinths. Hyacinth cultivation was very popular in the 18th century, with over 2000 recorded varieties at the time. It wasn’t until the 1980s that hyacinths saw significant growth nationwide, widely used for spring flower exhibitions and potted plant sales. Today, cultivated hyacinths have begun to adorn homes and public spaces, with demand increasing annually.
The Hyacinthus orientalis, or hyacinth, is a perennial herbaceous bulbous plant. Its bulb is either spherical or flat, covered by a membranous outer skin, which can be either purple-blue or white, with the color corresponding to that of its flowers. Unbloomed, it resembles a garlic clove. It has 4-9 narrow lanceolate leaves, fleshy and basal, thick, ribbon-shaped with shallow longitudinal grooves, and they shine in green. Its flower stem is fleshy, standing 15-45 cm tall and hollow. At the end, there is an inflorescence bearing 10-20 flowers densely arranged, mostly growing horizontally with a few hanging downwards. The flowers are funnel-shaped, with a tubular perianth, four lobes at the top, and a longer flower tube at the base. There are five segments which curl downwards and outwards. Depending on the color of the flowers, it can be categorized into eight lines: blue, pink, white, goose yellow, purple, yellow, crimson, and red. The original species is light purple and fragrant. It is a capsule fruit and blooms in early spring, with the natural flowering period being March to April.
Requirements for Vase and Water
You can use a wide-mouthed glass vase, plastic vase, etc. The water should be clean and changed weekly. If nutrient solution is added, the frequency of water changes depends on the turbidity of the water. You should frequently add water to ensure that the bulb is submerged.
Cultivation Method
There should be a space of 1-2 cm between the water surface and the bulb. Do not let the water submerge the bottom of the bulb. Then place it in a dark place and cover the vase with black cloth to promote root development. Once the roots grow to about 10 cm, move it to a south-facing windowsill that is warm and receives ample diffused light.
Requirements for Water Temperature and Light
The water temperature should not be too high, ideally kept between 15-20℃. When the leaves and buds grow out, expose them to diffused light for 1-2 hours a day. This will allow for healthy growth of leaves and flower stems.
Change the direction each day to prevent them from growing towards one side due to phototropism. There is no need for fertilization. By the next March or April, you should see a vibrant and fragrant hyacinth bloom.
Room Temperature Requirements
Maintain the room temperature between 17-20℃. This will allow you to witness the process of bud formation, growth, and coloration. But do not place it directly near a heat source. This will extend the blooming period of your beautiful hyacinth.
Soil Selection
Hyacinths prefer well-drained, not overly dry sandy loam soil. The soil should be fertile, high in organic matter, with good granular structure, neutral to slightly alkaline, with a pH level of 6-7. You can prepare the potting soil by mixing leaf mold, garden soil, coarse sand, and bone meal in a ratio of 5:3:1.5:0.5.
Before planting, use chemicals like formalin when the soil temperature is between 10-15℃, cover the soil with a thin film immediately after application. After 3 days in warm weather, remove the film, air it out for a day before planting, and keep the soil moist. Apply enough base fertilizer before planting, avoid continuous cropping when growing in the field.
Planting should be done in October-November, selecting well-drained soil is the most important condition. Apply enough base fertilizer before planting, add a thin layer of sand on top, arrange the bulbs, keeping a distance of 15 cm-18 cm between the plants, cover the soil 5 cm-8 cm deep, and cover it with grass to keep the soil loose and moist.
Generally, no other management is required before blooming. If you do not intend to collect seeds after flowering, cut off the flower stem to promote bulb development, cut as much as possible from the top of the stem. In early June, the bulbs can be dug out, spread out, sorted, and stored in a cold storage. The summer temperature should not exceed 28℃.
Potting
Mix loamy soil, leaf mold, fine sand etc. as the nutrient soil. A pot with a diameter of 10 cm can hold one bulb, and a 15 cm pot can hold 2-3 bulbs. Then bury the pot in the soil, covering it with 10 cm-15 cm of soil. After 7-8 weeks, when the bud grows to over 10 cm, remove the covering soil to expose it to sunlight. Plant in October-November, and it will bloom in March.
Fertilizing
During the growth period in autumn and winter, apply phosphate and potash as the main top dressing 1-2 times. No need to fertilize during the blooming period, apply top dressing once before and after blooming, apply enough base fertilizer before pot soil planting.
Watering
Hyacinths love sunlight and are relatively cold-resistant, and they grow well in cool and moist environments. Hence, it requires frequent watering to keep the soil moisture between 60-70%, which is beneficial for the growth and reproduction of hyacinths.
Light and Temperature
After planting, place the hyacinths in a place with abundant sunlight, expose them to diffused light for 1-2 hours each day, to enable robust growth of leaves and flower stems. Change the direction every day to prevent them from growing towards one side due to phototropism. If the light is insufficient, or it is dry for a long time in winter, it will lead to poor flowering.
If you see that the flower stem that sprouts is too short to stretch, you can place the potted flowers in a dark place for a few days to encourage the stem leaves to grow. Once the flower stem extends, return it to normal care. The temperature for forcing flowers should be between 5-10℃.
Hyacinths can be propagated in three ways. One can collect quality seeds between March and April, and use them for sowing propagation in the autumn, between August and September. Alternatively, in August, one could remove bulbs from the hyacinth for bulb propagation. Soaking these bulbs in water will induce rooting. It is necessary to change the water every three to five days and maintain the temperature around 20℃.
The most commonly used propagation method for hyacinths is sowing propagation. Seeds can be collected during the flowering season between March and April and then stored via the sand burial method for propagation between August and September.
Sowing propagation is straightforward. Scatter the stored seeds onto suitable soil, lightly loosen the soil and sprinkle water, maintain the ambient temperature around 20℃, and then leave it in a cool place. After a week, the seeds should begin to root and sprout.
For hyacinth propagation, one can remove bulbs from the plant in August. The removal area should be sprayed with disinfectant to promote quick healing of the wound. The detached part can then be planted in the soil. Keep the air and soil moist, and new buds should sprout after about three months.
The removed bulbs can also be rooted in water for propagation. However, the entire bulb should not be fully immersed in water as this could lead to propagation failure. The water should be replaced every three to five days, and with patience, the bulb will root in the water.
Common diseases in hyacinths include sprouting rot, soft rot, sclerotinia, and viral diseases. Prior to planting, it’s critical to thoroughly disinfect the substrate and select clean bulbs for disinfection. During the growth period, spray a 1000-fold dilution of fungicide (Tuijunte or Baijunclear) every seven days, alternating between them, which can help suppress the spread of disease to some extent. Strictly control watering amounts, improve ventilation management, control the relative humidity in the environment, and remove any diseased plants promptly to significantly reduce the incidence of disease.
To prevent diseases during outdoor soil chilling, it is advisable to use fresh soil each year, eliminating the need for regular soil treatment.
If soil has been previously used, it can be reused for potting or covering bulbs. It is recommended to carry out regular soil disinfection before use to avoid the occurrence of sclerotinia. This regular soil treatment is consistent with that prior to planting tulips. For methods of regular soil treatment, it is suggested to consult with local relevant departments.
If hyacinth bulbs are immediately provided with a temperature of 9℃ after planting, and the flower buds are fully exposed without being covered by soil during the chilling period, there’s no need to treat the bulbs with fungicides.
Part of a plant, located at the upper part of the inflorescence, is called “top rot,” which is often accompanied by brown spots at the leaf tips. This rot is usually caused by parasites randomly present under normal conditions, including plants that begin to be infected after small flowers dry out (physiological bud rot) or plants that have been pre-infected by parasitic fungi (parasitic fungal bud rot), followed by parasites causing the initial infection.
This fungus begins to infect plants from contaminated soil (even prior to planting). Indicative signs include irregular, bright brown, jagged scars on some small flowers. Occurrence on external leaves is slightly lighter. More severe infections have larger spots, brown leaf tips, and evidence of spider-web-like fungal growth visible in greenhouse plantings. This infection often appears regionally and intensifies as soil temperature rises.
Prevention and Control Method: Regularly use fresh soil for potting. Treat infected soil using standard methods before use. Maintain the prescribed temperature in the natural chilling and rooting room.
This is a storage period rot, with the initial symptoms visible even before planting. The root tips dry up where the fungus has infected. Upon cutting open the basal part of the root, one can see that the surrounding tissue is a light brown color.
The same color tissue can be seen where small bulbils have fallen off. The bulb continues to rot during storage and subsequent planting. Infected bulbs have shorter sprouts, with very few or no roots at all. The plant is prone to lodging.
This fungal infection also occurs on damaged parts of the bulb. Infected parts have white to bluish-green fungal growth, underneath which the tissue turns brown and soft, but this infection does not extend to the root plate, and it does not negatively impact the quality of flowering.
The infection is caused by different Penicillium species, such as P.verrucosum. “Pink Pearl” and its variants are prone to infection through the root tips. This infection mainly occurs in cool storage rooms (below 17℃), with humidity higher than 70%. Another cause is damage to the bulb.
Prevention and Control Method: Prevent premature sprouting or root formation. Plant immediately after arrival (especially “Pink Pearl” and its variants). Maintain the prescribed constant temperature and air circulation in the storage room. Keep humidity below 70% throughout the entire storage period.
Soft rot, in the greenhouse, severely infected bulbs no longer germinate. The bulb becomes soft, the bulb tissue is transparent and accompanied by white or yellow spots. These infected bulbs also emit an unpleasant odor. Less severe symptoms are: the formation of some wet, dark green areas at the base of the leaves, which will first cause growth to be hindered, then the plant wilts until it dies.
This disease is caused by the Erwinia bacteria. These bacteria are mostly parasitic, mainly infecting frozen or overly moist tissue. Another form of infection occurs from the wounds of premature roots or fallen bulbils when the temperature is too high or the soil is too wet.
This problem is mainly caused by soil temperatures being too high or too wet during natural chilling in the autumn. “Delft Blue” and “Carnegie” are cultivars that are extremely susceptible to infection. This disease is not contagious in the greenhouse, although infected tissue usually appears buttery, the infection will not occur elsewhere.
Prevention and Control Method: Plant bulbs under the recommended conditions, i.e., maintain a low temperature (9℃) in natural treatment or rooting rooms, and avoid too much moisture. Remove infected bulbs and plants during planting and throughout the greenhouse period. This can prevent Erwinia from spreading to nearby bulbs through irrigation water.
The last small flower dehydrates, which is caused by too short a period of cold treatment. Sensitivity to this type of bud rot varies depending on the variety and size of the bulb.
Prevention and Control Method: Ensure the rooting room and natural treatment temperature for the planted bulbs is maintained at a constant 9℃. Compensation measures should be used for non-9℃ treatments. Do not move the bulbs indoors too early, provide the required cold treatment for each variety.
Maintain a constant temperature of 23-25℃ during the greenhouse period, and do not allow the temperature to drop more than 1-2℃ during planting to avoid Penicillium infection caused by high relative humidity in the greenhouse climate. Never water the inflorescence, especially in the final stage. Before transportation, if storage is not provided, do not overwater the soil in the pots, and ensure sufficient air circulation between the plants.
Some of the flowers at the top of the inflorescence stay green, and in severe cases, it can spread to the entire top of the flower. The cause of the disease: imbalance caused by improper low-temperature treatment; both too short treatment time and incorrect temperature can lead to such a result. Some varieties, such as “Pink Pearl” and its variants and “Jan Bos”, are more sensitive to this imbalance than other varieties.
Prevention and Control Method: After planting, proceed with the specified cold treatment period and low temperature.
After the bulbs are moved into the greenhouse, the top growth of the hyacinth flower stalk becomes skewed. In large hyacinth inflorescences, a part of the flower stalk and its attached small flowers grow relatively faster than other parts, such as the “Delft Blue” and its variants, “Carnegie”, and “L’Innocence”. This characteristic is not what we expect, and this disorder is common in early planting and hyacinths with large inflorescences.
Prevention and Control Method: After planting, follow the specified cold treatment and low temperature standards. Maintaining a slightly lower greenhouse temperature (18-17℃) can also prevent the occurrence of flower stalk skew disease.
Unlike normal growth, the small flowers at the top bloom earlier than those in lower positions. The inflorescence of such flowers is usually short and robust. This disorder is caused by not giving the required cold treatment for the variety before moving the plant indoors. Each variety’s sensitivity to this disease varies.
Prevention and Control Method: After planting, proceed according to the prescribed cold treatment and low temperature standards.
In the early stage of the disease, the diseased leaf tips change color, and the leaves shrivel and rot. Under cold and damp conditions, rot can also occur in the flowers. In the late stage of the disease, a gray mold layer and black fungal nuclei are produced in the diseased parts.
The pathogenic fungi overwinter in the diseased residues and soil with fungal nuclei, producing asexual spores when conditions are suitable. These spores are spread by wind and rain, causing infection and harm. Low temperatures and high humidity facilitate the occurrence of the disease.
Prevention and Control Method:
Reducing the sources of infection: Diseased flowers and leaves should be timely removed and centrally destroyed.
Chemical prevention: At the early stage of the disease, spray with 1:1:100 Bordeaux mixture, or a 500-800 times solution of 65% zinc dimethyldithiocarbamate wettable powder, or a 1000 times solution of 50% mancozeb wettable powder, or a 800-1000 times solution of chlorothalonil for prevention.
Hyacinth root swelling disease is also known as root-knot disease. The root system is normal when it first occurs. When the roots extend to a certain degree, small white nodules form, weakening the plant’s vigor. Sometimes small flower dry rot occurs, affecting the growth and development of the plant. In severe cases, the entire plant may die.
Prevention and Control Method:
During storage, strictly sterilize and disinfect, pay attention to increasing ventilation, frequently inspect, turn over, and if diseased plants are found, timely remove and centrally destroy them.
Strictly carry out soil sterilization and disinfection, do not grow the same crop continuously, do not reuse the same cultivation soil.
If diseased plants are found during cultivation, timely remove them and treat the soil for pests and bacteria.
Strictly quarantine, do not let diseased bulbs or plants into the garden.
Peggie was once a high school mathematics teacher, but she set aside her chalkboard and textbooks to follow her lifelong passion for flowers. After years of dedication and learning, she not only established a thriving flower shop but also founded this blog, “Flowers Library”. If you have any questions or wish to learn more about flowers, feel free to contact Peggie.
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