It’s delightful to watch lovely hyacinth flowers blooming around you. But once they flower, the flowers will stop blooming further and start withering because of the plant’s natural life cycle. So now what?
In short, once your hyacinth bulb flowers, first, remove the dead and wilted flower stalks but keep the leaves until they die. And once the leaves also wilt, remove the entire foliage with just the bulb remaining. Finally, store the bulb in a cool and dry place till the next growing season comes.
You will need good gardening scissors to make the precise cuts on your Hyacinth plant. If you don’t have garden scissors, these are the garden scissors I use.
Let’s dive in deeper and understand in detail everything you should do with your hyacinth bulb once it flowers.
Here’s What To Do With Hyacinth Bulbs After They Flower:
- First, cut off the dead flower stalks by making the cut just underneath the flowers.
- Allow the remaining stalk and foliage to die off naturally so that the bulbs can gather all the required energy for the next blooming cycle.
- Once the entire plant and remaining foliage withers cut it up to the soil level such that only the bulb and its roots remain.
- Finally, store the pot containing the hyacinth bulbs in a cold, dry place and cover it with a black garbage bag to avoid direct light exposure.
- Once spring comes, gradually start exposing the pot to light, and you should notice new plant growth from the bulb.
1. Removing Dead Flower Stalks
After the hyacinth blossoms well, you should remove the flower stalk. You should not allow your hyacinth plant to spend its energy in seed production from that flower. Hence, removing the dead and withered flowers is the best choice.
Caution: Don’t remove the entire plant foliage at this point as they will still be alive and full of energy that the plant can take back. So only remove the dead and wilted portion.
You can make the cuts with disinfected gardening scissors exactly underneath the flowers.
After that, as a general rule, keep the potted hyacinth plant with remaining foliage (leaves) as it is for some time.
During this time, the plant will photosynthesize at a higher rate. The plant will produce food so that food can be stored in the hyacinth bulbs for the next season’s growth (before it goes into the dormant state).
You can keep your hyacinth bulb as it is in a bright sunny position so that the plant gets enough light. As a rule of thumb, you can keep the hyacinth plant such that it receives nearly six to eight hours of lighting in a day.
Bonus Tip: Want to help your hyacinth bulb flower well next season? Then you can transplant your hyacinth in a relatively larger pot. And add new and fertile compost to the soil so that the hyacinth bulb can replenish the energy quickly and give better results in the next season.
You may notice that your hyacinth bulbs shrink after they flower. But don’t worry, it is just a natural process, and it happens because the flowering phases are very energy-intensive for a plant.
Placing your hyacinth bulb in a whole new compost can help your bulb grow and restore all the energy.
And in the meantime, also make sure to water your hyacinth plant regularly. But try not to overwater, because if the bulbs remain to sit in water, they can get root rot.
If needed, you can add some indoor plant fertilizers to your hyacinth as well.
2. Removing The Remaining Withered Foliage
Now, once the hyacinth bulb completes its whole life cycle, the leaves will turn brown and wilt. This is the exact time you are supposed to remove all the remaining foliage right up to the ground level.
So after removing all the foliage, you will only have the hyacinth bulb potted in the soil.
3. Storing The Hyacinth Bulbs For Next Growth Season
After your hyacinth bulbs complete their growth cycle for that particular season, now it’s time for it to go into the dormancy stage. (They will go into hibernation)
You can keep your bulbs inside the pot and put the whole setup into a dry, dark, and cool place. You can put it in a paper bag or some sort of bag that is breathable but prevents direct light exposure as much as possible.
Another thing you can do is remove the bulb carefully altogether from its pot. Then you can brush away all the soil and leave it to dry for about a day or so, keeping it over a paper.
After that, you can put it in a dry, cool spot. (And you can keep the hyacinth bulb in a container).
Bonus Tip: Before storing, make sure to check if the bulb is healthy and not infected by any pests.
Also, if you are a gardening hobbyist with lots of plants and bulbs in the containers, I would highly recommend you label the containers with the name of the bulbs appropriately so that you don’t get confused.
Now, I shared with you mainly about the potted version of the hyacinth bulbs. But what if you have a hyacinth in a water vase? Let’s see!
What To Do With Hyacinth Bulbs After Flowering In Water?
As a general rule, once the hyacinth bulb has flowered in water, it is unlikely to survive for the next planting season. So usually, you don’t have many options except discarding that hyacinth bulb and using a fresh bulb.
However, if you are interested, you can give it a try. Once all the leaves and root parts of the hyacinth bulb die off, you can transfer it to free draining compost or a soil mix.
Caution: Don’t transplant the bulb into the soil until it becomes dormant because the roots can be so fragile that they will just snap if you transplant them.
Remember, the hyacinth bulbs may not grow and flower that well the next year after you transplant them because they were grown in water until now. But in the following years, you should see improvement provided the hyacinth plant receives enough light.
Conclusion
So, to sum up, first, you need to remove the dead flower stalks. Then water the hyacinth bulb with the remaining leaves, as usual until the leaves start to die. Once the plant leaves seem to die, just cut everything up to the soil level (such that only the bub now remains in the soil).
Finally, put the bulb, either as it is or by removing it and putting it in a container, in a cool and dry place till they become ready for the next growing season.
And hyacinth bulbs that are grown in water, generally, won’t survive for the next season. However, you can try and see how it goes with the recommendations given in this article. That’s it! I hope you found this article helpful.
