“That was the nicest Christmas present you could have given us,” our next-door neighbor said six weeks after December 25.
“Our hyacinth is open now, and it is exquisite! We’ve had hyacinths given us already blooming before, but we’ve never had such fun as watching this one grow!”
Other telephone calls followed in the next few days, and we felt glad and relieved that our friends had enjoyed the pots of bulbs we had given them.
We three children, with a total of 27 friends, always had the problem of finding pleasing but inexpensive gifts to give for Christmas.
Just as we had begun to think we couldn’t afford to buy nice things for everybody, we hit upon the idea of planting pots of bulbs to give away as presents.
Several Kinds Of Hyacinths
We began right away, in late September, searching the catalogs for the right kinds of bulbs.
We looked for “bringing in dates,” which told us the days when certain bulbs could be brought indoors after being started outside.
Ostara Bulb
Several kinds of hyacinths were brought in on December 21. Among them is Ostara. We chose it because of its rich blue color.
We decided to buy top quality and size to ensure that no bulb we gave as a gift would fail to flower.
We ordered Ostara then and there and obtained some 5-inch standard red clay pots, some 7-inch azalea pots, and a small load of sand.
Soon afterward, we dug a trench 2’ feet deep in the backyard. The day the bulbs arrived was exciting for the whole family.
We planted one bulb in each 5-inch pot and three in each 7-inch pot, making sure that the tops of the bulbs were half an inch below soil level.
We watered the pots thoroughly, carefully placed them in the trench, and shoveled sand over them to an inch above their rims.
We filled the rest of the trench with soil and covered it with a generous layer of leaves raked off the lawn.
Hyacinths Growing In Pots
The rest of October went by, and November and half of December. The hyacinths, we knew, were making good roots and sprouts or shoots under the layers of sand, soil, and leaves.
At last, December 21 arrived. Luckily it was not a cold day. (If it had been, we would have had to take precautions to keep the shoots from freezing.)
We removed shovels and trowels and uncovered the pots, working slowly and carefully to avoid injuring the half-inch shoots.
We exuberantly trooped into the house with our pots of hyacinths, decorated them with foil and ribbon bought from the florist, and fastened to each one the following message printed on a small card.
Keep it in a cool place for two weeks. Then bring it into a warm place but do not put the pot in the direct sun. Move to a bright spot in sunlight in a week, and keep watered.
We kept them in a cool room ourselves until we delivered them on the day before Christmas.
For weeks our friends reported on the growth of their plants and told us how delighted they were with them and how much they enjoyed watching the development and, finally, the flowering of our Christmas gifts.
44659 by Elizabeth Northen