Armenian Grape Hyacinth
"Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths & biscuits."
-Carl Sandberg,
1878-1967
1878-1967
Wild Muscari armeniacum grape hyacinths have been gardened in Europe since 1871, which makes it a come-lately compared to M. ambrosiacum gardened since 1554, & M. neglectum gardened since 1868.
A few plane wild Armenian grape hyacinth bulbs were planted out on the roadside beside the telephone pole, not far from a patch of nearly identical M. botryoides. Both have the classic blue cone or pyramid of little florets, but M. armeniacum adds a little rim of white around the edge of each "grape."
Both species produce new foliage in autumn after their summer dormancy, but the grass of M. botryoides is long & floppy, & for m. armeniacum it is stiff & spidery. So only the spring flowers look nearly the same.
Although the similarity of these two species may make it seem a bit silly to have them both, but M. botryoides starts blooming sooner (in March), & M. armeniacum is still around when the early muscaris are finished by mid-April. So there are grape hyacinths somewhere in the garden for an extra extended period of time.
These are also growing at SinLur Gardens where I planted about a hundred bulbs under the Sequoia tree. SinLur's large grouping is in shade, & our own small drift in the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl experiences full sun, & both do fabulously. They all happen to be in fairly droughty locations, but the bulbs would be just as adaptable to well irrigated locations.
These are popular bulbs for indoor forcing in winter, or for containers, as well as just about anywhere in the open garden. Suited to zones 4-8 (stretchable for 3-9), this native of southern Europe & the Caucusas Mountains naturalizes & spreads both by producing bulb offsets, & by self-seeding.
There are quite a lot of cultivars & we have a few of these in addition to the unnamed or wild strain by the telephone pole. 'Cote d'Azur' & 'Dark Eyes' really don't stand out as particularly different from the wild grape hyacinth, but 'Valerie Finnis' is a unique powder-blue.