Hyacinth: Flowering HousePlant Bulbs
Hello. I was given a house plant for Christmas and it’s starting to struggle. Since I was given it, it has flowered very well and grown a lot, but the flowers are very drooped over. I’ve attached several photos of that plant, and in the last one you can see what happens if the flowers don’t have something to lean on. I thought maybe we were over-watering it, as your site said that can make plants droop, although we were only giving it a small amount tepid water each day; we stopped doing that for a day, and the next morning I felt it wasn’t looking very healthy.
Hi Arlene,
Your plant is a bulb plant called a Hyacinth. Hyacinths flower for a while and then die back. The leaves on the Hyacinth Plant stay green long after the flowers have died. The leaves collect energy from the sunlight and transfer it into the Hyacinth bulb for the next year. Cut away the dead flowers close to the ground, but keep the leaves. Keep watering the bulbs to prevent the leaves from wilting. Once the leaves have become a yellowish-brown, the Hyacinth Plant has collected enough energy. Dig the bulbs up and shake off the excess dirt. Gently separate the small bulbs away from the Mother Plant. The bulbs need to be stored in a container of peat moss or sawdust. Place them in a cool area such as a refrigerator where temperatures stay around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. This mimics how the weather changes as the seasons move from fall to winter. Hyacinth bulbs need eight to 12 weeks in a cool area in order to bloom again next year. Moisten the soil if it starts to looks dry.