Winter Blooms: A Short Note About Old Hyacinths

Published Friday, January 18, 2008 by Chris | 0 Comments | E-mail this post

Roman hyacinths! How do we tell the difference between the real deal and a Dutch hybrid that has persisted yet lost it’s tight double form? Sometimes we can’t tell, but we do know that if it came from Elizabeth Lawrence’s garden like these pink hyacinths did, we know it’s old. The owner of the home did not know when Ms. Lawrence planted them or where they came from, but she did find a reference to roman hyacinths in Ms. Lawerence’s book “Gardens in Winter.”

These pink Roman hyacinths were from the garden of bulb enthusiast Cynthia Mueller. Her picture of the flowers shows a vase that functions as a nicely scaled holder for the smaller inflorescence of flowers. However, do not let the size fool you, for as you can see in the picture below, Roman hyacinths really know how to hold their own in the garden setting!

Because it was snowing here in Northeast Texas, I decided to stay in Tyler today. The Tyler Public Library is close, and I will see if they have a copy of “Gardens in Winter.” I think I might walk. How many days in Texas do we get to take a nice stroll in the snow?

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