Apollo had a thing for Hyacinthus, a beautiful young boy who must of lived some time long, long ago. They would frolic and play, the Greek god way, walking through their literary wonderland. One of their favorite games was throwing the discus, but unfortunately Hyacinthus was not as skilled at the sport as Apollo. This was made evident when Apollo threw the discus, it became out of control, and struck Hyacinthus in the head. Hope was lost for our young handsome Hyainthus, and his blood began to spill on the ground. Where the blood landed, the hyacinth came up...and so the story goes.

This must have happened long ago, because since then that single hyacinth has adapted into numerous different colors to include blue, white, pink, violet, yellow, and all of the shades in between. Perhaps these colors were first noticed by the Roman who reportedly grew them when they were in control of the world. The Dutch have done the best with the colors and varieties since they first received them in the late 16th century. According to DeHertog in The Physiology of Flowerbulbs there are three species of hyacinth, but the only one we are concerned with is Hyacinthus orientalis.

That's good news for us, because the only proven Hyacinth we can grow here in the South is Hyacinthus orientalis, which we refer to as the old Roman hyacinth (French-Roman hyacinth in some circles). We say proven because we have seen it in the oldest of gardens thriving all by itself. They might not be the biggest blooms, but they know how to send up two to three flower stalks per small bulb and quickly clump.

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I could go on with some good stories, but after the Dallas Home show today, I raced out to the land in the truck with two weimaraner (and they can be handfuls). Once we got here, we had to tarp 4 beds in the pouring. freezing rain. The dogs were troopers, but I wasn't it. It wore me out and I need to go to bed.

Here are some photos from the farm. I have separated them over the years according to different characteristics and locations.