General Culture: Click for monthly care information.
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Plant bulbs about 3” deep and 3” apart in fall. Flowers emerge in early spring. Keep ground moist during the spring growing season, but reduce watering after foliage begins to die back. Although plants of this species go dormant in summer, they produce new leaves in autumn. Naturalizes well by both bulb offsets and, under favorable growing conditions, self-seeding.
Noteworthy Characteristics:
Native to southeastern Europe, this species of grape hyacinth is a perennial bulb that features conical racemes of slightly fragrant, tightly packed, deep violet blue, urn-shaped flowers atop scapes rising to 8” tall in early spring. Each bulb produces 1-3 scapes with 20-40 flowers per scape. Each flower has a thin white line around the rim. Dense inflorescence purportedly resembles an elongated, upside-down bunch of grapes, hence the common name. Scapes rise up from somewhat floppy clumps of narrow, fleshy, basal, green leaves (to 12” long) that appear in autumn and live through the cold St. Louis winter to spring when the plants flower.
Problems:
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses:
Provides spectacular drifts of color when massed in open areas, around shrubs, under deciduous trees, in the rock garden or in the border front. Also mixes well with other early blooming bulbs. Popular container plant. Also forces easily for winter bloom.
© Missouri Botanical
Garden, 2001-2010
More photos:
(3 ratings) --- 
