Hyacinth
Hyacinthus orientalis
Dense spikes of richly fragrant flowers in mid-spring, at their best edging a walk or massed by a door where the scent carries, and deer pass them by. Wear gloves to plant the bulbs, which can irritate skin and are mildly toxic, and expect smaller, looser spikes after the first year.
- Mature size
- 10 × 6 in
- 0.3 × 0.1 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 4a–8b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium
- Blooms
- Apr
Hyacinth at its mature size
A mature Hyacinth grows to about 10 in tall and 6 in wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Eden Brothers.
Through the year
What Hyacinth looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Below ground · Jul–Feb
Dormant below ground from midsummer until spring; draw nothing.
New growth · Mar
Thick glossy leaves and a tight green flower spike just out of the ground.
In flower · Apr
One dense spike of starry blue fragrant flowers in the leaves.
In leaf · May–Jun
Flower spike gone, the leaves left to yellow.
Growing Hyacinth
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest.
- Good for
- Deer resistant and fragrant
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Hyacinth, that’s about 6 in apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Hyacinth in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.