Hyacinths Are Excellent as Potted Plants

To get the most beauty from hyacinths all spikes must be perfect so only the largest size bulbs obtainable should be used. This extra large, or exhibition size, is not available in all shops so one may have to shop around a little to find them.

The top-sized bulbs may cost a little more but the perfection Of form and vivid colors of blooms with delightful fragrance, makes the extra cost really worth while. Each year I grow at least six pots of hyacinths. For years I stood each spring outside florists windows admiring the beauty of potted hyacinths in bloom that I couldn't afford to buy.

At first I tried only the average or bedding size of bulbs, but found the exhibition size made the beautiful pots sold in shop, windows in early spring. I prefer three bulbs to a pot instead of the five usually recommended and all of one color, instead of an assortment of colors. For sometime I admired a pot of assorted colored hyacinths, in bloom but found that half the beauty was lost because different colors would not bloom at the same time for me.

They should be grown in low pots, known as ''fern pots," and good drainage must be a main," consideration. Three largesized bulbs should be placed in a 7-inch low pot so the top of the bulbs show slightly, in a mixture of good garden loam with a bit of bonemeal and some sand. I place each bulb on a handful of sand and scatter extra sand close around the bulbs when I place the soil mix in the pots as this guarantees perfect drainage and discourages soil insects from chewing at the basal ring of the bulbs, which happens so often and hinders root growth.

Some persons sink the newly planted pots into the soil some place in a garden until rooted, which takes from two to three months, but I put them into a dark place and darken the tops by placing a clean piece of board across the pots. Failure with bulbs in pots can usually be attributed to insufficient root system which must be formed before the growth shows above the soil.

While the bulbs have an abundance of food stored within them it is well to give several feedings of a liquid fertilizer when bloom spikes first show. The pot should be kept moist but not too wet and placed in a light situation when top growth commences. To encourage a tall spike, place a cone shaped piece of cardboard over each bulb as it comes into growth to force it to reach for the light. As a general rule pot grown bulbs will not give a second performance next year so after the blooms are gone and the foliage matured, the bulbs may be removed and kept to plant out in the open garden, come next November when its bulb planting time again.

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