Easy-growing Dutch hyacinths bring perfume to spring flower bed

Of all the sweet-smelling spring-flowering bulbs, hyacinths might offer the strongest scent.

A few growing by a front door can provide a welcoming whiff, while dozens in a garden bed can perfume a whole yard.

Fall is the time to buy and plant these classic beauties, which are easy to grow as well as fragrant.

“Originally, hyacinths grew only in the lands around the Mediterranean Sea,” according to ibulb.org, which markets and supports the flower-bulb industry.

“The cultivating of hyacinths in Holland goes back more than 400 years, but they were also a familiar plant in the Greek and Roman periods.”

Today, hyacinth bulbs come in a rainbow of colors — white, yellow, orange, red, purple, even true blue — and are available at nurseries, big-box stores and online retailers.

Often referred to as “Dutch hyacinths,” they are not related to the much-smaller “grape hyacinths,” aka muscari, which usually feature blue flowers.

Dutch hyacinths, aka Hyacinthus orientalis, usually reach less than a foot tall and prefer full sun and well-drained soil.

Although the flowers tend to last longer in partial shade, the stems might flop. (For once, couldn’t a gardener have it all? Sigh.)

Plant bulbs about 6 inches deep and the same distance apart, and keep in mind a warning from the Missouri Botanical Garden:

“Wear gloves when planting (them) to avoid possible allergic skin reactions.”

Hyacinths usually look best when planted in informal clusters or drifts rather than rigid lines. They look gorgeous mixed with tulips, daffodils and smaller bulbs such as anemones and muscari.

They’re also among the easiest bulbs to “force,” a technique in which you plant bulbs in a pot; provide a chilling period — in an unheated garage, for example; then bring them indoors to bloom during the dark days of winter.

You can even grow them in plain water in a vase specially designed to keep the roots wet but the main part of the bulb high and dry.

For bulbs planted outside, the Missouri Botanical Garden advises gardeners to “promptly remove spent flower spikes so plants do not need to expend energy on seed production.”

Some gardeners find that flowers decrease in number or quality several years after bulbs were planted, so they dig out old ones and replace them.

However, I’m still enjoying hyacinths that I planted 15 years ago. Individual blooms aren’t as tightly packed along the flowering stem, but the overall effect remains delightful — and they smell as sweet as they did their first spring.

Diana Lockwood, a freelance writer covering gardening topics, posts on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mrsgardenperson.

Here are some popular hyacinths in a range of colors:

• Carnegie produces white flower spikes that can unite pastels, cool off hot hues or make an elegant statement on their own.

• Delft Blue features medium-blue flowers with light-blue or almost-white edges.

• Gypsy Queen, depending on the light, could be described as salmon, orange or apricot.

• Woodstock offers blooms in a stunning shade somewhere between fuchsia and beet-red.

Sources: Online vendors including Brent and Becky’s Bulbs and John Scheepers

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A rainbow of blooms