Hyacinth

Dutch or Florists' hyacinths are a favourite for spring in pots for early colour and fragrance indoors. They can be forced for early flowering around Christmas time, by planting in shallow bowls of bulb fibre and growing in a warm dark environment. They are equally valuable as outdoor plants for flowering in April. They may be bedded formally, in which case medium-sized bedding hyacinths are planted in autumn and lifted after flowering for drying off and storing until the following autumn. Or they can be planted permanently, whether as bedding bulbs or indoor prepared bulbs after flowering, and they soon become established, flowering a little later with looser heads of blooms