Swapping Huckleberries
Himalayan Honeysuckle ( Vaccinium glauco album) Himalayan Honeysuckle ( Vaccinium glauco album) has been an attractive feature along our north-facing foundation since I planted it in 2016. You will have to take my word for it since I cannot locate a photo although I know one exists somewhere in the realm of the Internet or floating on a cloud somewhere. I did locate a photo of how it looked when it was first planted - It took a few years to fill out but it did so nicely to an attractive mound about 2 feet high by 3 feet wide. Last year, it started to look bad. I cut it back but it had not improved and this is how it looked a few weeks ago - I decided to rip it out and plant another huckleberry - this time Vaccinium ovatum , more commonly known as the "Evergreen Huckleberry". This is a plant that I've wanted for ages and kept putting off getting one because I could not find a good place for it. By most accounts, this is an amazing plant, a native one and excellent for
I had never heard this mythology. I love hyacinths but I can't be near them I seem to have an allergy/sensitivity to them. I think they scream spring. They do look unreal and the fragrance is stunning because it is so strong. Your little blue guy is quite handsome. Maybe he needs some company.
ReplyDeleteThe story - would fit an iris better. Hyacinths do look artificial. (So do tulips!) Can't say I like grape hyacinths either - too uptight. Hyacinth colours are good though.
ReplyDeleteI remember the myth of Hyacinthus (I used to teach a unit on mythology with my freshman English students). There are quite a few flowers and plants that supposedly came from tragedies like this one:) I love hyacinths, though I prefer the standard purple ones to some of the other colors that look more artificial to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. Though beautiful, and I like them from afar, they have that fake look. And I can't bring them indoors because one bloom is strong enough to run me out of a room.
ReplyDeleteI think the flower looks charming, Phillip.
ReplyDeleteDo hyacinths attract any bees or other beneficials in your garden?
My Mom used to have a lot of hyacinths when I was a little kid. I really believed they were plastic! :O)
ReplyDeleteWhen Hyacinthus died, Apollo created the hyacinth flower out of the blood of his slain lover, and his tears inscribed the flower petals with the letters άί άί, (meaning alas) so that the cry of woe might for evermore have existence on the earth. So the flower became associated with grief and mourning, and sometimes rebiirth.
ReplyDeleteThe wild Hyacinth orientalis is native to Greece and Turkey. As the English variety of Hyacinth had no trace of these mystic letters, it is named Hyacinthus nonscriptus, or 'not written on.' Oddly, it is the nonscriptus that sticks with this bulb as botanists keep switching the species name.
English hyacinths have a wonderful aroma and we grow them in the fragrance bed of the herb garden in Huntsville Botanical Garden. The prophet Mohammad is reported to have said,(and versions of this were later attributed to many people): “If I had but two loaves of bread, I would sell one and buy hyacinths, for they would feed my soul.”
ReplyDeleteMore lore: The viscid juice abundant in the bulb and existing in every part of the plant has been used as a substitute for starch and in the days when stiff ruffs were worn it was thought second only to Wake-robin (trillium) roots. It was also used for sticking feathers on arrows, and as bookbinders' glue. All you need to do is cut the bulb and apply the juice. (Best for porous materials, not good on glass or plastic.)But be careful, the bulbs are poisonous.
ReplyDeleteThe very old fashioned hyacinths don't have that plastic flower look. DH's grandmother had a single blue with the most divine fragrance that I took from her yard when she died -- I was so sad when voles ate them.
ReplyDeleteAn old saying: If you have only two pennies, buy bread for the body with one; and with the other, buy hyacinths for the soul. This was obviously before the days of inflation! There is a stand of pink and blue hyacinths at Aldridge Gardens that has stolen my heart. Now I want to try them! I do have the little grape hyacinths, which are perfectly charming.
ReplyDeleteI love the intoxicating fragrance of Hyacinth and I selected purple ones for my garden. I worked in the garden last Saturday surrounded by their scent. There is no logic to why we prefer one plant over another but now that you learned the myth, would you consider getting company for this lonely little guy?
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of hyacinths, forced in little pots for midwinter treats, planted in the garden after the initial bloom. They take planning to find little spots where a clump of them look good.
ReplyDeleteI've gone out after dark to take pictures and found Yellow Sulfur butterflies clinging to the blooms.
I think hyacinth look fake, too. But I planted a few last fall just for the fragrance. Interesting story. I think there are several more Greek myths along that same vein.
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