| Additional Notes: Hyacinths, it is
believed, were first cultivated in Europe by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Both Homer and
Virgil described the plant's fragrance. The hyacinth known to these men would have been
Hyacinthus orientalis, a native of Turkey and the Middle East and the genetic ancestor of
our modern cultivars. This early hyacinth was a
rather wan looking specimen. With only about 15 pale blue flowers in a loose raceme, or
group of single flowers arranged along a central axis, on ten-inch stems, these plants
were valued mainly for their scent.
Whether due to their anemic appearance or other factors,
the cultivation of hyacinths faded from Europe about the same time as the Romans did.
The plant reentered European gardens in the 1560's,
reintroduced from Turkey and Iran, eventually reaching the bulb-loving low countries of
Holland.
It was there that the tiny Hyacinthus orientalis
experienced a centuries-long "fashion make-over," as skillful Dutch hybridizers
transformed it into a full-flowered garden gem, earning the plant its popular name: the
Dutch Hyacinth.
Botanists at one time included about thirty species under
the genus Hyacinthus. Botanical reorganizations over the years have moved most of these
plants into other genera, leaving only three in the original family, of which only H.
orientalis (with the exception of Hyacinthus orientalis albulus, a species strain native
to southern France now hardly ever grown) has garden-worthy offspring.
All hyacinths found in the modern garden are cultivars, or
manmade hybrids. Though the original species can still be found in nature along the
eastern shores of the Mediterranean, it is no longer in cultivation or trade.
In the mid-18th century, Madame de Pompadour -- mistress of
France's King Louis XV -- ordered the gardens of Versailles filled with Dutch Hyacinths
and had hundreds forced "on glasses" inside the palace in winter. The
predominant fashion trend-setter of her age, the royal paramour's passion for these
sweetly-scented Dutch bulb flowers sparked a national rage among the French elite.
Today, the hyacinth remains a symbol of style and elegance,
with the grand tradition of large formal beds planted with hyacinths carried on in many of
the world's great public and private gardens. |
