In addition to the usual holidays such as Animal Day, Mother's Day, Secretary's Day, Christmas Day and Women's Day, we also celebrate the annual Hyacinth Day at the Fluwel barn.
'Is that a holiday' you may ask. Yes and no, it is the day that we pack all the Hyacinths for our American customers and for the Fluwel webshop. You should know that almost all people get an enormous itch from the dust that comes from the Hyacinth bulbs. Not an itch, no, a real itch.
The first fifteen minutes seem to go well when you are tying bags behind the counting machine. But then you rub your eye or wipe your nose without realizing it and then you are the one in trouble. The fine dust is pushed into your skin and the itching starts. Don't touch it, that only makes it worse, everyone knows it; don't scratch. DON'T SCRATCH, DON'T SCRATCH!!!
But alas, you unknowingly ran your finger along it again. And yes, it gets worse. Irritated, you look at the clock, Moses Pietjes it is only a quarter past eight, I still have to do a good 7 hours. Work hard, because when it is finished we can stop. We all know that when the last Hyacinth pops in the bag we can stop working, quickly under the hot shower to sweat out the itchy dust and then eat Pizza together.
We know from experience that Pizza is the only good remedy for itching. That way, the worst day of the season always ends up being one of the most pleasant.
You are probably wondering if you will also get itchy when planting Hyacinth bulbs in your garden, but you really don't have to worry about that, it is really not that bad outdoors. In our shed, tens of thousands of Hyacinth bulbs are counted on Hyacinth Day and they give off so much dust that it really starts to irritate.
Planting a bag, or even a few hundred Hyacinths in the garden will at most cause a few spring fevers at the thought of how beautiful they will soon be, but there will certainly be no itching.
The Hyacinth is a fantastically beautiful flower. In the beginning I could not appreciate it that much, but over the years I have come to love the Hyacinth more.
In the garden, she always attracts attention due to the intensity of her colour. Not with bright, flashy colours but with rich, full colours, she knows how to be very intense even in the softest shades. The Hyacinth knows like no other spring flower bulb how to be prominently present in a subtle way. And then of course there is always her seductive scent. A real treat in early spring.
The most heard criticism of the Hyacinth is of course the falling over of the flower clusters and that is 'unfortunately' somewhat justified. But we have tried as much as possible to select species for the Fluwel webshop that naturally have a sturdy stem that can carry the flower clusters reasonably well.
The bulb size is also not the top size as we always supply with other flower bulbs. Hyacinth bulbs are available in size 18/+ but we choose to use size 16/17. This size gives a decent flower cluster but it is not so big that it falls over when it is in full bloom.
This, in combination with the sturdy stems, makes it a very suitable range for gardens, pots and flower boxes.
Furthermore, the Hyacinth has surprised me over the years with its reliability. The first year always good, there is never anything wrong with it. But also in the following years it usually knows how to come back quite well. Admittedly with less thick flower clusters but it does come back. In short, a flower bulb that is certainly worth considering for planting in the garden.
Kind regards,
Carlos van der Veek
Oh yes, another nice story about the Hyacinth. At least, I thought it was a funny anecdote.
There was a period in the history of flower bulbs when the Hyacinth was much more popular than the Tulip . This success was not only due to the beauty of its flowers, no, it was mainly its scent that people at the time were very charmed by. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, people increasingly began to move from the countryside to the cities, because there was work there. But in far from all cities the sewage system was in order and the garbage truck did not yet come by every Tuesday morning to collect a green, gray or other colored bin. In many places the garbage truck and the sewer had yet to be invented.
It could also be that not all people took a shower every morning to get through the day with less odor. The washing machine probably also did not run every day, so it could be that people stepped into the same clothes for several days.
I think for sure that if you live under such circumstances day in day out, you will certainly get used to the various smells. But in such a situation, the Hyacinth with its seductive scent has an edge over the Tulip.
