Hyacinth height control

regulo | 19:05 Thu 11th Feb 2010 | Gardening

7 Answers

Can you tell me how I can control the height of indoor hyacinths? Every year, we buy hyacinths to brighten the house, but they grow so tall they end up toppling over, or we have to erect scaffolding round them! What situation should they be in? We put them in our living room, in full light (not direct sunlight) in front of patio doors to the conservatory, or on the kitchen windowsill. Any advice welcome.

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Hawkwalk

You cant really if you grow them indoors. The only way they grow shorter is in the cold where they are slower and stay firm. You could try a different variety which may naturaly be shorter but other than that there is not much you can do.

Clanad

You could try planting the bulbs deeper. Usually, Hyacinth are planted (at least here in the western U.S. where we have truly cold winters) at about 6 inches. We tried planting some at around ten inches and they were noticeably shorter. You may wish to seperate the bulbs and plant the smaller ones indoors...
Good luck!

carlton23

Buy `prepared` bulbs from a garden centre and follow the instructions, and when they are finished plant them (South UK) 4" deep (6"Nth) in the garden for future flowering. Mine are in the kitchen facing North and do very well suspended "1/2 above water on a piece of wire mesh on a jam jar.

regulo

Question Author

Thanks for your answers, looks like I need to buy "proper" bulbs, not cheapo ones from Lidl, then!! We always transfer the bulbs to the garden, when flowering over, and do find they behave themselves from then on, so it's probably to do with too favourable conditions indoors.

carlton23

If you Google `Hyacinth Bulb`, you will find all the knowledge you need to grow them.

regulo

Question Author

Thanks Carlton23, I do sometimes Google things, but prefer to ask here for more personal experiences. Between us, we have a wealth of that, I'm sure. Thanks again.