June 2020 - Ballito Umhlanga

The sweet-scented
HYACINTH
Our indoor plant of the month is the sweetly fragrant pot hyacinth. A cluster
of these lovely flowers fill a room with their delicate, fresh scent. When grown
indoors, pot hyacinths like bright indirect light, not direct sunlight and they
need moist, but not wet, soil. Each pot plant has a number of flower spikes
that open and remain attractive for several weeks if the plant is kept in a cool
but well-lit room. Remove flower spikes that are over. Once the plant has
finished flowering, keep it in a cool room with moist soil and plant it out in
spring, for flowering the following spring. Alternatively, the hyacinth can stay
in its pot. The foliage will die down, but it will come up the following year if it
is watered from next April onwards. Details: plantimex.co.za
Text: KYM ARGO and ALICE COETZEE
June 2020 Get It • Ballito Umhlanga 47