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

chrisw99 wrote:
Debbie,

The yellow in the test bed photo is 'City of Haarlem' and 'Yellow Queen'. (Not a great idea for identification to plant 2 yellows together!) 'City of Haarlem' is an heirloom from 1893 but is available from 4 rated vendors (check out the Plant Files) plus it was also available McClure and Zimmerman (www.mzbulb.com) last year. 'Yellow Queen' is a deeper yellow, in my opinion, and was also available from mzbulb. Both have bloomed for 5 years in my garden.

The tall peachy one in the background is 'Odysseus' available from mzbulb. It was gorgeous for 3 years then suddenly disappeared along with the other bulbs in the same area of my test bed--which makes me suspect it was not the bulb petering out but some other problem like rot or a critter.

Another peach hyacinth that is very widely available is 'Gypsy/Gipsy Queen' introduced in 1927. It is shorter and more compact that 'Odysseus. In the Cornell multi year study 'Gipsy Queen' was one of the best performers---still producing lots of blooms after 3 years in each of the zones they tested. It blooms a slightly later than Odysseus for me.

Chris
Photo of Hyacinth o 'Odysseus' taken Mar 9, 2003