BEAUTIFUL HYACINTHS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 28

BEAUTIFUL HYACINTHS

PLANT THEM NOW Opinions differ as to the value of hyacinths for the garden. In formal beds they make a line show with little trouble, but in our climate tend to deteriorate from year to year. The beginner who buys narcissi may increase from bulbs, year to year; if he buys hyacinths he must replace them with fresh stock. That does not mean that hyacinth bulbs need be thrown away when once used, but merely that they will give smaller and fewer flowers. 'SVhen choosing hyacinth bulbs, firmness and weight are the best qualities. For bedding it is not necessary to have expensive named varieties which should be reserved for pots and glasses. Good firms send out fine bedding hyacinths to colour. The scent, somewhat overpowering in a room, is pleasant out-of-doors or wafted through an open window’, so that hyacinths are quite suitable for formal beds or borders near the house. A light, rich soil is most suitable, and good drainage is necessary; in •waterlogged soil the bulbs may rot. Plant from the end of April to the end of May, three inches deep and from 6 to S inches apart. The hyacinth is quite hardy and protection is not necessary, though some growers like to use dry litter. The hyacinth is less adapted to growing with carpeting plants than the tulip, but a bed of hyacinths in two colours, say, yellow and blue, red and white, or pink and blue, can be very effective. An edging of some dwarf foliage plant may be used with advantage. The beginner in bulb growing is Varned that, manure must be dug in deeply, a foot below the surface, so that the actual bulb does not rest upon it; the roots will find it in time. Ground at planting time should be in a friable condition. A little sand cr grit is a great help to heavy soil, especially where bulbs are to be grown, but if either is hard to obtain much may be done with bonrire ash or burnt earth, stuff from old hotbeds or the potting shed.