PLANTING HYACINTHS

Planting hyacinth

Anne Marie, a gardener at Raymond Blanc’s hotel garden in Oxfordshire gives her tips on planting hyacinth. She orders her pick of the hyacinth bulbs for planting at the start of October. For reliablity, she values planting hyacinth ‘Carnegie’ for white flowers and ‘Delft Blue’ for pale blue

compact hyacinth flowers.

Crates of hyacinths are taken in to the house after eight days in the greenhouse.

Planting hyacinth

Planting hyacinth bulbs individually into small plastic plant pots not much bigger than the bulbs themselves. Each planting hyacinth pot is filled two-thirds with compost and one third with garden soil, and then the bulb is placed in the pot and the edges filled in.

Her team planting hyacinth so that the bulb is above soil level. Pots are watered by trickling

water around the bulb to wet the medium. The planting hyacinth pots are then placed in crates and

totally covered with compost or leaf mold, and placed in a cool shed or sheltered area of the garden. The cooler the conditions, the slower the development of planting hyacinth. Hyacinths are

checked once a week, and if the weather is very cold, they are moved to a cold greenhouse to keep them on track.

Eight days before moving planting hyacinths to the house, the compost is knocked off the top, and they are exposed to light and placed in a cool greenhouse. A day before going in, planted hyacinths moved to a warm greenhouse to prepare them for central heating. Hyacinths can cause skin irritations, so make sure to wear gloves when handling them.

As the house is generously centrally heated, planting hyacinths will need staking when they are in full flower.