How to Grow Hyacinth from Seed

 

The scientific name of Hyacinths is Hyacinthus orientalis and the plants are beautiful additions to Southern gardens. The plants provide vibrant floral color with tall spikes of eye-catching blooms and bright green foliage. The Hyacinth plants are members of the Asparagaceae family. The Hyacinth plants are perennials that produce striking, fragrant flowers, which will have you looking forward to their blooms every year. Are hyacinths easy to grow? Continue reading to learn about hyacinths and how to grow, tend, and maintain the plant everywhere, including in your gardens, containers, and windowsills.

 

Can You Plant the Seed pods from a Hyacinth?

Hyacinths can be easily grown from seed with some patience. Just make sure you allow the hyacinth seeds to mature on the plant. Rather than cutting the faded blooms back on your entire hyacinth you can leave a few to develop seed pods. At first, these seed heads will be bright green and fleshy but, as they mature, they turn a tan color and split open to disperse little black seeds. One of the easiest methods of saving hyacinth seeds is to wrap nylon pantyhose around the hyacinth flowers that have gone to seed to catch the seeds once the pods disperse them. It is significant to know that hyacinth plants grown from seed may not develop into the same variety of hyacinth that the seed was collected from. Many times, with sexual propagation (seed propagation) of plants, the resulting plants will revert to qualities of other parent plants. For this reason, the best way to propagate plants that are exactly the same variety as the plant you want is by asexual propagation, like divisions and cuttings. For hyacinths, the best way to create more of a specific variety of hyacinth is to plant the small bulbs that form on the parent bulb.

 

How to Collect Hyacinth Seeds

Actually when the hyacinth seed pods have split open, you can easily remove the nylon pantyhose and collect the hyacinths seeds and then spread them out to dry. Once dried, if you are going to save the hyacinth seeds for later use, store the seeds in an envelope or paper bag in a cool, dry place. The fresh hyacinth seed is most viable. Next, soak the hyacinth seed in lukewarm water for about twenty-four to forty-eight hours. There are actually 2 methods of getting hyacinth seed to sprout. The first is to lay out a thin strip of hyacinth seed on a moistened paper towel, cover with another moistened paper towel, and then gently place this in a plastic bag. Place the plastic bag in your refrigerator in a place where it will not be disturbed or squashed, and simply wait until the hyacinth seeds sprout in the fridge. Then gently plant the sprouts two to three inches apart in a seed tray filled with a mix of peat moss and perlite and then place this tray in a cold frame or greenhouse.

Furthermore, the other method of growing hyacinth from seed is to just plant the hyacinth seed directly in a seed tray filled with a mixture of peat and perlite and then place the tray in a cold frame or greenhouse. Either method will take patience. For the first year, the hyacinth will not sprout much more than a few leaves. During this first year, the seed’s energy will be used to develop a bulb, not foliage or flowers. When growing hyacinth plants from seed, it can actually take up to 6 years before some varieties of hyacinth will even develop a flower. Bulb growth is the priority in the first couple years of seed grown hyacinths, but you can help it along with a monthly dose of rooting or bulb boosting fertilizer. Patience is actually the key to proper hyacinth seed propagation.