Common Name: grape hyacinth
Type: Bulb
Family: Asparagaceae
Native Range: Turkey
Zone: 5 to 8
Height: 0.25 to 0.50 feet
Spread: 0.25 to 0.50 feet
Bloom Time: March to April
Bloom Description: Blue
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Flower: Showy, Fragrant, Good Cut
Tolerate: Deer, Black Walnut
Culture
Easily grown in average, medium moisture, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Plant bulbs in fall about 2-3” deep and 3-4” 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 (plants go dormant in summer). Propagate by bulb offsets or seed. This species will naturalize by self-seeding.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Pseudomuscari azureum, commonly known as grape hyacinth, is native to Turkey. Tiny blue flowers (each to 3/16" long) which are densely packed in a conical 20-40 flowered raceme bloom in early spring (March-April) atop a leafless scape rising to 4-6" tall. Flowers are fragrant. Basal, linear, grass-like, gray-green leaves (usually 2-5 leaves per bulb) rise to 6" long in spring, but elongate after flowering to 10-12" long before eventually withering in the heat of the summer as the plant goes dormant. Flowers of this species are open bell-shaped (nearly unconstricted mouths reminiscent of hyacinth).
Specific epithet from Latin means sky blue in obvious reference to flower color.
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.