Water
During the spring and through flowering, the ground should stay consistently moist.
After flowering, you can basically stop watering. They tolerate drought and go semi-dormant during the dry summer.
Fertilizing
Don’t fertilize your feather hyacinth plants. If you feed them, they’ll focus on growing the foliage rather than the flowers.
No offense to the foliage, but it just kind of looks like grass. Certainly not the focal point. We want flowers!
Containers
If you’re worried about them spreading, grow your bulbs in containers.
Make sure the pot is large enough to allow them to spread a bit and it has drainage holes at the bottom.
A three- or five-gallon pot would be perfect. Fill the container with any standard potting soil.
Learn more about growing Muscari in containers here.
Where to Buy
I’m not going to lie, it can be hard to find these plants. Look at specialty nurseries, especially those that stock lots of different bulbs.
Online resources can be especially useful for hunting down rare and unusual plants like this.
Maintenance
There’s no maintenance required with feather hyacinth unless they start to spread where you don’t want them.
If that happens, the best way to remove them is to dig down and pull out the bulbs. You can plant these elsewhere or give them away to fellow gardeners.
Propagation
Getting started with feather hyacinth is simply a case of planting the bulbs. You can divide overgrown clumps as well.
When planting, set the bottom of the bulb about five inches deep in the ground.
That might sound deep, but the bulbs have retractile roots that tug them even deeper into the ground. Space the bulbs about an inch apart.
You can learn more in our guide to propagating grape hyacinth.
Managing Pests and Disease
Feather hyacinth has few problems. And by few I mean you’re more likely to be dealing with constraining the plants than trying to nurture them through an issue.
Aphids are the most likely pest you’ll encounter. They use their sucking mouthparts to feed on the leaves and stems, causing yellowing and stunted growth, if there are enough of them.
Use a gentle stream of water from the hose to spray the aphids off the plant.
You might need to do this a few times, once a week for a month. There’s no need to turn to insecticides.
Welcome Our Feathered Friends
These funky flowers are effortless to care for while adding some unusual and outsized impact with the tassels of bright purple flowers.
Are you already a fan of grape hyacinth and you’re looking for something a little bit extra? Let us know how you intend to use your feathered friends in the comments section below!
If you’d like to learn more about growing grape hyacinth in the garden, have a read of these guides next:
