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“What is it?” “Maybe we can eat it.” “Give it to Mikey…”
In the 1600s, when hyacinth bulbs were brought from Turkey to Europe, there was speculation that it was a new food.
People thought the bulbs resembled a turnip, so they cut them in pieces and boiled them, they tasted them raw, they fried the bulbs and even candied them. When they’d exhausted all possible culinary treatments, and still found them unpalatable, hyacinth bulbs were given the heave-ho into botanical gardens.
Botanists and nurserymen thought the hyacinth blooms deliciously fragrant. They started to experiment with the bulbs and eventually developed a technique that brought hyacinths into bloom when it was too cold for anything to grow outside.
At first, they put hyacinth bulbs on top of glass water-filled bottles and eventually developed vases made especially for hyacinth bulbs. Glass blowers made vases according to customer specifications, and every grower had a slightly different design for his hyacinth forcing collection. Around 1700, the shape of the vases morphed from the Empire-waist shape to a bottom heavy hourglass shape, which was less likely to tip over.
The whole process of germination was visible through the glass. And as long as the vase was large enough to hold roots, almost anything could be recruited as a bulb forcing container. The bulb vase grew in popularity as more people moved to cities and had no access to their own gardens.
Ladies were encouraged to cultivate indoor gardens. (They didn’t have to get dirty.) So they tried acorns. They experimented with tulips, narcissus, crocus, grape hyacinth and of course, hyacinths. Glass enamellers and gilders turned out bulb vases that were ornamental as well as functional. Chandeliers made to hold both candles and bulb-forcing vases were produced.
Wedgwood developed a root pot that was a flowerpot specially molded with inserts inside the pot that would hold a tray with holes. Baseless cups went into the holes, water went into the pot, bulbs, primarily hyacinths, went into the cups. Spode, Worcester, Copeland and other British potteries developed their own variations of the Wedgwood design.
Bulb forcing vases aren’t the rage anymore, and so are hard to find. I’ve been checking the local antique shops, florists and thrift stores. EBay has some expensive glasses for sale, but the rest wouldn’t do justice to a Lady Derby hyacinth bulb already sitting on a water-filled carafe in the garage. It’s been there since November.
The bulb needs dark and cold temperatures for at least eight weeks. The roots are developing nicely, and new growth is showing on the top of the bulb. Soon I’ll liberate it from its dungeon and put it close to a window that will provide indirect light and as much cold air as our storm windows will allow.
Tovah Martin, in an article in Country Gardens magazine, said forcing hyacinth bulbs “is a cadence of the seasons, a part of the whole rhythm of life.”
Contact Teresa Futrick at esroyllek@hotmail.com