Bulbs: Hyacinths as perennials What's your experience?, 1 by chrisw99

chrisw99 wrote:
WOW! I haven't checked this thread for a few weeks and was surprised to find all the new messages. Thanks, everyone for contributing to this discussion. I am already learning new things from all of you.

This last year has been a bit of a disaster in my garden--a destructive critter (probably a gopher) has rototilled through a large part of the garden, destroying everything in its path except for clumps of narcissus, arums, euphorbias, and things in wire baskets. My original hyacinth test beds were planted in heavy duty wire planting boxes with lids, but I had to take the lids off after the first year when some hyacinth shoots were too fat to fit through the mesh. ( I learned quite a number of lessons along the way in this project .) From the sprouts I can see this year compared to recent years counts, it seems like I have lost a large number of hyacinths , even many of the ones in the wire boxes, and I am not sure why --a) the critters climbed in or b)the bulbs may have just rotted from poor drainage during our last 2 wet Januarys, or c) those varieties just sucumbed to other problems.

I will begin posting some photos from this year and from previous years, and hope you will, too

First hyacinth of the year :

This is a found hyacinth that I think is French Roman White. It matches the descriptions that I have read--narrow petals, slender stem, very early, fragrant. The bulbs are very small and have a white tunic. It blooms in early -mid Feb for me.

Chris