How to care for potted hyacinths after flowering? Detailed guide to growing methods

Hyacinth is a flower species that people often cultivate. For potted hyacinths, keep the soil slightly moist at ordinary times, and avoid over-wetness or waterlogging, so that by March of the following year they will generally all bloom. The potting method is basically the same as planting in the ground. Use loose soil with 1—4 bulbs per pot, apply enough base fertilizer, place outdoors in a sunny spot, and apply topdressing during the growing period. In the Shanghai area, move them indoors to a sunny spot in November, keep the room temperature at 5—10°C, and around March they can also bloom and give off fragrance.

However, potted hyacinths bloom and then the flowers fade. How should hyacinths be handled after the ornamental flowering period? This article separately introduces how to handle hyacinths after the flowers fade (water culture and soil culture).

If your hyacinth is soil-planted and has finished flowering, you can care for it normally until the leaves wither, then stop watering and just place it in a cool place, and the next year it can sprout and bloom on its own. During normal care, of course, after it withers you can also dig out the bulb, trim the roots properly, then wrap it in newspaper or the like and place it in a cool, ventilated place. Of course, one thing to mention here is that many flower lovers talk about nourishing the bulb. After the hyacinth flowering period is over, it is the bulb-nourishing stage. Flower lovers can apply fertilizer appropriately to nourish the bulb, but use light fertilizer!

How to grow soil-cultured hyacinths after flowering:

1. Keep the bulb: after soil-cultured hyacinths finish flowering. Cut off all the leaves, flower stems, etc., and keep the bulb. Then bury the bulb in sandy soil and wait for the summer dormant period to arrive.

2. Grow again: around July 20, dig it out and put it in the refrigerator's cold storage compartment, keeping it at 4°C for low-temperature sprouting. After the growing point sprouts, continue to bury it in sandy soil, water once every 15 days, and wait until December to pot it for cultivation. The management is very extensive, and there is no special technique.

3. Maintain light: after flowering, hyacinths need plenty of sunlight. Place them outdoors or in a sunny spot as much as possible, with no less than four to five hours of sunlight exposure per day. If placed indoors without sunlight, they will quickly wither.

4. Control water and cut flower spikes: for hyacinths after flowering, once the flower spikes have all shriveled, stop watering. After about a week, cut off the shriveled flower spikes and throw them away. Then wait until the leaves have all turned yellow and withered, cut off all the flower stems about one centimeter from the roots, and continue drying the surface.

5. Dig out the bulbs underneath, and you will find there are more bulbs, just like an animal giving birth to young, which means the hyacinth has produced babies. Put them in an envelope and place them in a cool, dry place. After the Spring Festival the next year, take out the garlic-like bulbs and bury them in a flowerpot. At this time they should be kept indoors. When the weather turns warm and the young plants are about to form flower buds, they need plenty of sunlight.

However, whether they bloom is not certain, and they may produce very small flowers, because these are all hyacinth babies. The bulbs must be grown large, to about 3-5 cm in diameter, before they can once again produce beautiful flowers as large as the original ones. You must be patient! This process may take two years.

If what you bought is a soil-cultured hyacinth, then after it flowers, care for it normally until the leaves wither, then stop watering and just place the flowerpot in a cool, ventilated place. The next year, the hyacinth will sprout and bloom on its own.

But if it is a water-cultured hyacinth, after the flowers fade you can cut off the leaves and fibrous roots, let the bulb dry naturally, then wrap the bulb in newspaper and place it in a cool, ventilated place, and then in December take it out to continue water culture or soil culture.

How to grow water-cultured hyacinths after flowering:

1. Continue water culture: after the flowers of a water-cultured hyacinth fade, continue water culture until early June, when the temperature gradually rises, and the hyacinth's leaves will turn yellow and wither and it will enter the summer dormancy period.

2. Cut off the leaves: cut off all the yellowed and withered leaves of the hyacinth during the summer dormancy period, and cut off all the roots.

3. Refrigerate the hyacinth: place the bulb in a cool, ventilated place to dry for 1 to 2 days (absolutely do not expose it to the sun). After it is completely dry, wrap the bulb in newspaper and put it in a jar, and place it in the refrigerator's cold storage compartment (not the freezer).

4. Temperature requirements: during the summer, the temperature must not exceed 10°C, otherwise the bulb is prone to rot.

5. Grow again: when November comes and the temperature gradually turns cooler and deep autumn arrives, take out the hyacinth bulb that was stored for a summer, place it on the mouth of a suitable container, add water to about 1CM from the bottom of the bulb, then place it in a completely dark and cool place at 5°C to encourage root growth. After about 25 days, roots will sprout. When the roots grow to 2CM, you can follow normal hyacinth care methods to grow it until it blooms. Generally, with this cycle, hyacinths can be grown for about 3 years. By the 4th year, the original bulb will basically no longer bloom.

After hyacinths bloom, with handling, they will also bloom the next year, but the flowers will become shorter and smaller, and the flower scape will also shrink. This is mainly because the bulb has degenerated. Therefore, for hyacinth cultivation, it is preferable to plant for one year and then buy new bulbs!