Keep your hyacinth bulbs flowering from year to year with this step-by-step guide.
But before most other flowers have even started to wake up, hyacinths are fading.
What should you do with them after they finish flowering?
Credit:Cameron Sadeghpour
The answer depends partly on whether they were planted in the ground or in a container.
Remove the old flower spike.
After blooms have faded from your hyacinth, remove the flower spike.
Credit:Blaine Moats
Instead, the photosynthetic effort will go into storing energy in the bulb for next year.
Allow leaves to die back before cutting.
Take care thatannualsor later-growing perennials don’t shade out your hyacinths before they’re done for the year.
Let the bulbs chill out.
This is the easy part.
Let leaves die back.
Hyacinth bulbs in containers also need their leaves to recharge.
Water it when the top inch feels dry.
Contact with hyacinth bulbs can cause contact dermatitis for gardeners with sensitive skin.
Wear gloves when handling bulbs, and wash your hands immediately when finished.
Store potted hyacinth bulbs.
Leaving them in their pot works well if it’s possible for you to provide the right conditions.
Use a breathable paper or mesh bag, not plastic, to store your hyacinth bulbs.
Check containers periodically to ensure the soil hasn’t become too wet, and they aren’t freezing.
Move hyacinth back outside.
The bulbs will wake up as the temperatures warm.
Water once at planting and then wait until they pop up before resuming normal watering.
After the leaves appear, place the pot outdoors where they’llget lots of sunlight.
