HYACINTHUS 



HYACINTHUS 



1617 



Double red. — Bouquet Tendre, crimson. Noble par 

 Merite, deep rose. 



Single lilac. — Sir William Mansfield, lilac-mauve. 



Single yellow. — King of the Yellows, deep yellow. 

 Yellow Hammer. 



Double yellow. — Goethe. Bright yellow. 



Miniature hyacinths, or "Dutch Romans," are small- 

 sized bulbs of the ordinary Dutch hyacinths. They 

 are excellent for growing in grouijs in bowls, pans or 

 fiats, planted close together and treated the same as 

 the large hyacinths when grown in pots. 



Culture in glasses. 



Some of the single hyacinths may be grown very 

 satisfactorily in water. Special glasses for the purpose 

 can be bought from the seedsmen. They should be 

 filled with pure water and the bulb so placed that its 

 base barely touches the water. The glasses must then 

 be placed in a dark closet or cellar tiU sufficiently long 

 roots have developed and the main flower shoot is 

 about 3 inches tall. This usually requires eight to 



earlier than the ordinary Holland-grown stock of 

 the Romans. 



The propagation of hyacinths. 



With the exception of the Roman hyacinths (which 

 come from the south of France), the world's supply of 

 hyacinth bulbs is produced in Holland. The soil and 

 climate of that country seem to be peculiarly suitable 

 for bulb-growing, which has been one of the leading 

 industries there for 200 years. The bulbs intended for 

 next year's market are planted in October in care- 

 fully prepared, richly manured land, and protected over 

 winter by a thick covering of reed or litter. The flowers 

 are cut when in full bloom in the spring. By July the 

 bulbs are fully ripened, and are taken out of the ground 

 by hand, dried, cleaned and assorted into three grades 

 of quality, according to size. Early in August they are 

 ready for shipping. Overgrown or unshapely bulbs are 

 reserved for propagating. As soon as these are taken 

 out of the ground, three deep cross cuts are made with 

 a sharp knife in the bottom of each bulb. They are 



1928. Roman hyacinth. 



ten weeks. Thereafter they may gradually be brought 

 into the light. An airy, sunny situation and a tempera- 

 ture of about 60° regularly maintained will insure the 

 best results. The glasses should be kept filled by adding 

 water occasionally as required. A small piece of wood 

 charcoal placed in the glass tends to keep the water 

 pure and sweet. 



The following varieties are especially suited for 

 glasses: Lady Derby, pink. Lord Macaulay, deep rose. 

 Mina, pure white. L'Innocence, pure white. La Vic- 

 toire, brilUant red. Grand Maitre, blue. Grand Lilas, 

 hght blue. King of the Blues, dark blue. Schotel, finest 

 hght blue. Mimi, blush-white. MacMahon, pure yellow. 

 Moreno, deep rose. Lord Balfour, lilac tinged violet. 



Roman hyacinths. 



Instead of one large truss from each bulb, the Roman 

 hyacinth produces three or four smaller but more 

 graceful flower-spikes. The bulbs arrive in America 

 in August, and by successive pottings they may be had 

 in flower from November till May. They require the 

 same forcing treatment as the larger hyacinths, but 

 three or four bulbs may be planted in a pot. The 

 florists use wooden flats instead of pots, setting the 

 bulbs close together, forty or fifty in a flat. By reason 

 of its beauty and exquisite fragrance, its earliness and 

 easy culture, the white Roman hyacinth is the most 

 popular of winter-blooming plants. Several milhons 

 of these bulbs are" grown annually by the f.orists of 

 the large cities for winter cut-flowers. 



Within the last few years, large quantities of Dutch 

 hyacinths have been planted and gromi for one year 

 in the south of France, where they ripen off several 

 weeks earher than in Holland. Consequently, these 

 hyacinths can be forced in bloom two to three weeks 



103 



then set out, bottom upward, and covered with loose 

 soil for two or three weeks, during which time the cuts 

 open out and the wounds are healed. They are then 

 taken up and kept spread out on tables in storehouses 

 till October, when they are planted out. When hfted 

 next June, nothing of the parent bulb remains but dry 

 skins, on the edges of which twenty to thirty off'sets 

 are fastened. These bulblets are picked off by hand 

 and planted out in autumn, just like large bulbs. 

 This process of planting in autumn and taking up in 

 summer for a two months' rest is repeated for four or 

 five years, till the bulbs have attained to marketable 

 size. Another method of propagating is to hollow out 

 the bottom of the bulb smoothly to a point in the cen- 

 ter. More offsets are secured in this way, but they are 

 smaller and take a year or two longer to reach matu- 

 rity. These methods are illustrated in Figs. 1924, 1925. 



New varieties are obtained from seed, but as the 

 present leading varieties have attained a very high 

 degree of perfection in form and in color, few seedlings 

 show marked improvements on existing sorts. New 

 varieties are also produced by "sporting," that is, one 

 plant spontaneously assumes a new and different 

 character from the remainder of the stock and from this 

 one plant new stocks are grown. In this way the beau- 

 tiful light rose variety DeWet sported from single blue 

 Grand Maitre, while single purple Lord Balfour first 

 appeared in a stock of the deep rose Moreno, and so on. 



■The tendency to produce new varieties should be 

 restricted to distinctive forms and colors. Many of 

 so-called new varieties recently introduced are merely 

 slight alterations in form or color of the parent bulb, 

 not sufficient in appearance to justify calling them new 

 sorts, merely increasing the list of named sorts for ad- 

 vertising or selling purposes, j. m. Thorburn & Co. 



