My hyacinths are done blooming. I forced them inside- to enjoy their spring beauty and fragrance. I had thought about planting them outside when I was done, but now I am pretty certain that I want to keep them inside, store them for next year, and then force them indoors again in the spring.
The only problem is, I don’t know exactly how to do this. So, I am going to comb the internet, post my findings, and then hope that maybe someone with a little more gardening experience might read this post and kindly redirect me if I end up with erroneous findings.
savvygardener.com – have a great article about forcing bulbs here.
ehow.com – I didn’t like their info as well, left some questions unanswered- but helpful place to start.
theflowerexpert.com – they also gave a helpful amount of info about planting and storing hyacinth.
The basic info I have learned from the above sites. Forcing bulbs inside weakens the bulbs- you either need to plant them outside after forcing them, or throw out bulbs and use fresh ones each year.
Do not cut off the foliage after bloom period- you can cut the flower stalk but leave the leaves to die back on their own. You can try to dry them out and store them, but if you want to use the same bulbs again- it looks like they need to be outside so that they can store up energy to bloom strongly again the next year.
Maybe plant them in the yard and mark them to dig up in the fall?
I am not sure what I am going to do yet.
Will add to this post once I decide what I am going to do and we’ll see how they bloom next year.
I am not throwing them out, so either they are going in the ground outside or they will get dried out and stored for next year.
