A flower raised by Apollo. PR in ancient mythology. Digging and storing bulbs
O Greece, land of legends and myths,
sing Hyacinth, flower of the rains...
Long ago, a handsome youth named Hyacinth
And the son of the Spartan king, the favorite of God Apollo was.
And patronized Hyacinth, and Apollo, and God Zephyr,
He sent the south wind to people and played hide-and-seek with the north.
Three friends often gathered - hunted, competed,
They were well versed in art, competed in sports games.
Once they gathered in discus throwing to practice
And having fun in the wild, indulge in sweet pleasures.
But Hyacinth surpassed the gods in beauty, in dexterity, and in strength.
The disk was thrown so hard at Apollo that the walls of the world shook.
Zephyr, fearing that this disk will suddenly cripple the solar god
I blew so hard on him, for Apollo feeling anxious.
And that disk flew back, mortally wounding Hyacinth,
Oh woe, woe! Is there a way out of the dark death of the labyrinth?
How to revive Hyacinth ... and breathe life into him again?
Friends did not succeed, how painful it is to lose a friend!
Then Apollo wept... Oh, Hyacinth! Oh, my poor friend!
And carry the memory through the centuries, he gave him a posthumous vow
Both Apollo and the god Zephyr bowed their heads, and blew the horn of sorrow,
And the drops of Hyacinth's blood suddenly became a fragrant flower...
Oh Hyacinth! In the spring you decorate the vaults of the sky,
And in Greece you are a symbol of the rebirth of nature!
(Nadia Ulbl)
Hyacinth is a flower of love, happiness, fidelity and ... sorrow. The name of the flower "hyacinth" in Greek means "flower of the rains", but the Greeks at the same time called it the flower of sadness and also the flower of memory of Hyacinth. There is a Greek legend associated with the name of this plant. In ancient Sparta, Hyacinth was for some time one of the most significant gods, but gradually his fame faded and his place in mythology was taken by the god of beauty and the sun, Phoebus, or Apollo. The legend of Hyacinth and Apollo has remained one of the most famous stories O the origin of flowers.
The favorite of the god Apollo was a young man named Hyacinth. Often, Hyacinth and Apollo arranged sports. Once, during a sporting event, Apollo was throwing a discus and accidentally threw a heavy disc directly at Hyacinthus. Drops of blood splashed on the green grass, and after a while, fragrant purple-red flowers grew in it. It was as if many miniature lilies were gathered into one inflorescence (sultan), and on their petals the mournful exclamation of Apollo was inscribed. This flower is tall and slender, the ancient Greeks call it hyacinth. Apollo immortalized the memory of his beloved with this flower, which grew from the blood of a young man.
in the same Ancient Greece hyacinth was considered a symbol of dying and resurrecting nature. On the famous throne of Apollo in the city of Amikli, the procession of Hyacinth to Olympus was depicted; according to legend, the base of the statue of Apollo, seated on the throne, is an altar in which the deceased youth is buried.
According to later legend, during Trojan War Ajax and Odysseus simultaneously claimed possession of Achilles' weapons after his death. When the council of elders unfairly awarded the weapon to Odysseus, this amazed Ajax so much that the hero pierced himself with a sword. A hyacinth grew from the drops of his blood, the petals of which are shaped like the first letters of Ajax's name - alpha and upsilon.
Huriya curls. So called hyacinth in the countries of the East. "The interweaving of black curls will only scatter the scallop - And a stream of hyacinths will fall on the roses of the cheeks," these lines belong to the Uzbek poet of the 15th century Alisher Navoi. True, the assertion that beauties learned to curl their hair from hyacinths appeared in ancient Greece. About three millennia ago, Hellenic girls decorated their hairdos with "wild" hyacinths on their friends' wedding day.
The Persian poet Ferdowsi constantly compared the hair of beauties to swirling hyacinth petals and highly appreciated the fragrance of the flower: Her lips were fragrant better than a light breeze, and hyacinth-like hair is more pleasant than Scythian musk.
Hyacinths in gardens were cultivated for a long time only in the countries of the East. There they were as popular as tulips. Hyacinth lives in Greece, Turkey and the Balkans. He was popular in Ottoman Empire, from where it penetrated into Austria, Holland and spread throughout Europe. The charming hyacinth came to Western Europe in the second half of the 17th century, primarily to Vienna.
In Holland, the hyacinth came by chance from a shipwrecked ship that carried crates of bulbs; broken and washed ashore by the storm, the bulbs sprouted, bloomed and became a sensation. It was in 1734 when the fever for growing tulips began to cool and the need for a new flower was felt. So he became a source of great income, especially when he managed to accidentally breed a terry hyacinth.
The efforts of the Dutch were directed first to breeding, and then to breeding new varieties of hyacinths. Flower growers have tried different ways to propagate hyacinths faster, but nothing worked. The case helped. Once a mouse spoiled a valuable bulb - it gnawed out the bottom. But unexpectedly for the frustrated owner, children appeared around the "crippled" place, and how many more! Since then, the Dutch began to specially cut the bottom or cut the bulb in a cross shape. Tiny onions formed at the sites of damage. True, they were small and they were grown for 3-4 years. But flower growers do not take patience, and good care behind bulbs accelerates their development. In a word, more and more marketable bulbs began to be grown, and soon Holland traded them with other countries.
Very fond of hyacinths in Germany. A descendant of the Huguenots, gardener David Boucher, who had an excellent collection of primroses, began to grow hyacinths. In the second half of the 18th century, he arranged the first exhibition of these flowers in Berlin. Hyacinths so impressed the imagination of the Berliners that many were carried away by their cultivation, taking up the matter thoroughly and on a grand scale. It was fashionable entertainment, especially since King Frederick William III himself visited Boucher more than once. The demand for hyacinths was so great that they were grown in huge arrays.
In France in the 18th century, hyacinth was used to stupefy and poison those people they were trying to get rid of. Usually, the bouquet intended for this purpose was sprayed with something poisonous, and the flowers intended for poisoning were placed in the boudoir or bedroom of the victim.
In Russia, the first hyacinths appeared in 1730. 16 varieties for the Annenhof Garden in Lefortovo were ordered from Holland by the gardener Branthof. They would have been ordered from abroad if the botanist A.I. Resler had not grown hyacinth bulbs in Batumi in 1884 and proved by his own experiments that this plant could well grow on the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea. Since then, domestic varieties of hyacinths have not been inferior to foreign ones either in beauty or in the duration of flowering.
Here are the hyacinths under the shine
electric lantern,
Under the shine of white and sharp
They lit up and stand, burning.
And so the soul trembled
Like talking to an angel
Staggered and suddenly swayed
In blue-velvet seas.
And believes that above the vault
God's heavenly light
And knows that where freedom is
Without God, there is no light.
Whenever you want
Find out which gardens
The master took her away
Creator of every star
And how bright are the labyrinths
In the gardens for milky way -
look at the hyacinths
Under an electric light.
(Nikolai Gumilyov)
Under the thin moon, in a distant, ancient country,
thus spoke the poet to the laughing princess:
The melody of through cicadas will die in the foliage of olives,
the fireflies will go out on crumpled hyacinths,
but the sweet cut of your oblong
satin-dark eyes, their caress, and ebb
slightly bluish on the squirrel, and shine on the lower eyelid,
and gentle folds over the top - forever
will remain in my shining verses,
and your long, happy gaze will be nice to people,
as long as there are cicadas and olives on earth
and wet hyacinth in diamond fireflies.
Thus spoke the poet to the laughing princess
under a thin moon, in a distant, ancient country ...
(Nabokov)
Bought hyacinth bulbs. Some say that they should be planted at the end of summer, others - in the fall. Can you please tell me when should this be done?
Galina PONIZHAEVA, Chashniksky district
Hyacinths have always been distinguished by their delicate persistent aroma and memorable shape. The Dutch made this flower famous, becoming the "legislators" of most of the hybrids they bred.
And it was named after the character of ancient Greek myths. According to legend, Hyacinth - a young man of extraordinary beauty - was the beloved of the god Apollo. When he taught him to throw a discus, the wind god Zephyr, who was also in love with him, out of jealousy directed the discus thrown by Apollo at Hyacinth's head. The young man died, and then Apollo created a flower from his blood ...
Hyacinth is a bulbous plant. It is suitable for growing in the garden and forcing in room conditions. Its flowers are different color scheme- from white, yellow, pink, lilac to crimson, red, lilac, blue and blue flowers. Hyacinth bulbs are very large, reaching a diameter of 5-6 cm.
According to the timing of flowering, they are divided into early, middle and late. The difference in terms is no more than 10 days. Flowering occurs at the end of April - beginning of May. Blue varieties bloom first, then pink, white, red, lilac, and last of all - yellow and orange.
Planting, care and feeding
Hyacinths are more demanding on soil, heat and moisture than other bulbous plants. The soil for planting requires light, neutral, rich in organic matter. Acid must be limed using chalk, lime or dolomite flour.
A landing site should be chosen sunny and calm. The site should be with a slight slope, providing water runoff during spring snowmelt and during heavy rains. Prolonged flooding can lead to mass diseases and the death of bulbs.
At the end of summer, prepare the land for autumn planting. To do this, it is necessary to carry out a deep digging of 35-40 centimeters, then scatter fertilizers: organic - per 1 sq. meter for 1.5-2 buckets of humus or compost; mineral - 2-3 tbsp. spoons of superphosphate and 1. tbsp. a spoonful of potassium sulfate, 1-2 cups of wood ash. It is good to add 300-500 grams of organic deoxidizer. Then you need to level with a rake upper layer 8-10 centimeters deep and cover with black plastic wrap so that weeds do not germinate. Since the soil can settle and compact, site preparation is carried out no later than 30 days before planting. Planting is carried out in late September - early October at a soil temperature of plus 6 to 10 degrees. Before the onset of frost, the bulbs should take root. For planting, choose medium-sized bulbs that give more weather-resistant flower stalks.
The bulbs should be inspected and discarded, soft and diseased, pickled for 30 minutes in a solution of the Hom preparation (40 g per 10 liters of water) and planted at a distance of 12-15 centimeters from each other. Planting depth - 15-18 centimeters. For hyacinths, as for all bulbs, landing in a "sand shirt" is very desirable. To create it, clean river sand is poured into the bottom of the hole with a layer of 3-5 centimeters. The bulb is slightly pressed into it, then covered with sand, and then with soil. This technique will help prevent rotting of the bottoms of the bulbs, protect against infection and improve drainage. The landing site is mulched with peat (5 cm layer), and when the temperature drops to below zero, they are covered with insulating materials. In the spring, as soon as the soil begins to thaw, the shelter should be removed, as hyacinth sprouts appear very early.
After removing the shelter and the mulching layer, you should immediately feed, water, and loosen the plants.
At the beginning of the growing season, immediately after the appearance of sprouts, the first feeding is carried out in a dry form: per 1 sq. meter scatter 1 tbsp. a spoonful of urea and nitrophoska.
After the appearance of the buds, a second top dressing (liquid) is carried out: in 10 liters of water, dilute 1 teaspoon of urea, superphosphate, potassium sulfate.
After the end of flowering, the third top dressing is carried out: in 10 liters of water, dilute 1 tbsp. spoon of superphosphate, potassium sulfate or 1 tbsp. a spoonful of nitrophoska fertilizer. Spend 5 liters of solution per 1 sq. meter.
After planting, hyacinths require watering. If the autumn is dry, it is necessary for the rooting of the bulbs. Also, in a dry spring without watering, hyacinths quickly fade. The soil under the plants should be constantly moderately moist. When watering, the soil must be wetted to the depth of the roots. After flowering, the flowers are plucked (only curls), and the shoot is left.
Digging and storing bulbs
Annual digging of bulbs is mandatory. They are dug up when the leaves turn yellow. The leaves are immediately cut off, the bulbs are cleaned from the ground and placed in a row in boxes with a mesh bottom, leaving for preliminary drying for 2-3 days under a canopy. After that, the bulbs are cleaned of excess scales, roots, growths, and a well-formed baby is separated. Bulbs are stored at a temperature of about 20-25 degrees.
Diseases and pests
Hyacinths can be threatened by slimy bacteriosis (wet, or white, bacterial rot), fusarium, green mold, gray rot, onion root mites, onion and tuberculate hoverflies, stem nematode.
Control measures
Before planting, the bulbs are treated in a solution of the Hom preparation, as mentioned above. This helps resist rot. Against mites, bulbs and plants are treated until budding with a preparation of colloidal sulfur (40 g per 5 l of water).
Hyakinthus or Hyacinth (Hyakintos), in Greek mythology:
1. The son of the Spartan king Amykla, the great-grandson of Zeus according to Apollodorus. A young man of extraordinary beauty, a favorite of Apollo and Zephyr (or Boreas). When one day Apollo taught Hyakinthus to throw a disc, Zephyr, out of jealousy, directed the disc thrown by Apollo at Hyakinthus's head and he died. From his blood, Apollo produced a flower. In honor of Apollo and Hyakinthos, three-day festivities (Hyakinthia) were celebrated in Amikla, in Laconia, which existed even in the days of the Roman Empire.
2. Spartan, father of Antheis, Aegleida, Aitea and Orphea, whom he brought to Athens and sacrificed on the grave of the Cyclops Gerest, when pestilence began in Athens; the sacrifice had no effect, and the oracle ordered the Athenians to bear the punishment that the Cretan king Minos would lay on them.
3. According to another legend, Hyacinthes, the son of Pier and the muse Clio, was loved by Apollo and Tamiris, a Thracian singer.
Death of Hyacinth, 1752-1753,
artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Historical reference.
Sparta (Σπάρτη), in ancient times the main city of Laconia, on the right bank of the river Evrota, between the river Aenus and Thiase, also a state whose capital was Sparta. According to legend, Sparta was the capital of a significant state even before the Dorians invaded the Peloponnese, when Laconia was allegedly inhabited by the Achaeans. Here reigned the brother of Agamemnon, Menelaus, who played such a prominent role in the Trojan War. A few decades after the destruction of Troy, most of the Peloponnese was conquered by the descendants of Hercules ("the return of the Heraclides"), who came at the head of the Dorian squads, and Laconia went to the sons of Aristodem, the twins Eurysthenes and Proclus (great-great-grandchildren of Gill, the son of Hercules), who were considered the ancestors of those who reigned in Sparta is simultaneously the Agiad and Eurypontid dynasties. At the same time, part of the Achaeans went to the north of the Peloponnese to the region, which was named after them Achaia, the rest were mostly converted to helots. It is impossible to restore, at least in general terms, the actual history of the ancient period of Sparta, due to the lack of accurate data. It's hard to tell which tribe he belonged to. ancient population Laconia, when and under what conditions it was settled by the Dorians, and what relations were established between them and the former population. It is only certain that if the Spartan state was formed thanks to the conquest, then we can trace the consequences only of relatively late conquests, through which Sparta expanded at the expense of its immediate neighbors. A significant part of them probably belonged to the same Dorian tribe, since by the time the large Spartan state was formed in Laconia, the tribal opposition between the original population of the country and the Dorians who came from the north-west of Greece had already managed to smooth out.
Elizarova Svetlana
Hyacinth
Summary of the myth
A. A. Ivanov. "Apollo, Hyacinth and Cypress"
Hyacinth (Hyakinth) - son of the Spartan king Amykla and great-grandson of Zeus. According to another version of the myth, his parents are the muse Clio and Pier.
The young son of the king of Sparta was so handsome that even the Olympian gods considered him worthy of their company.
Hyacinth was the favorite of the god Apollo. And one day, when both competed in discus throwing, Zephyr, the god of the western wind, watched them from heaven. He had tender feelings for Apollo, so he changed the flight of his disk and Hyacinth was mortally wounded in the head.
Apollo held his dying friend tightly in his arms, and his tears fell on Hyacinth's bloodied curls. Hyacinth died, his soul flew off to the kingdom of Hades. Standing over the body of the deceased, Apollo whispered softly: “You will always live in my heart, beautiful Hyacinth. May your memory live forever among people.” And according to his words, a scarlet, fragrant flower grew out of the blood of Hyacinth, as if stained with blood, and on its petals the groan of sorrow of the god Apollo was imprinted.
Images and symbols of myth
Wind personifies something intangible, transient. Because of this, Apollo accidentally killed Hyacinthus.
Image of Hyacinth associated with sacrifice because of love. He fell as a result of jealousy. But at the same time, we can say that this is also a retribution for the craving of an ordinary person for the divine.
Flower (heyday)- a symbol of young life, widespread throughout the world, indicating the impermanence of any earthly beauty, which can only be durable in heavenly gardens.
The symbolism of flowers emphasizes their connection with the cycle of life and death, as a symbol of transience, brevity of being, spring, beauty, perfection, innocence, youth, soul.
Hyacinth- a flower that, according to myth, was previously a person or could only grow due to the death of a person.
The name of the flower in Greek means "flower of the rains", but the Greeks simultaneously called it the "flower of sorrow" and also the "flower of memory" of Hyacinth. The Greeks believed that on the petals of a wild hyacinth you can read the word "ah-ah", which means "woe, woe!".
Also in ancient Greece, it was considered a symbol of dying and resurrecting nature. A flower that arose from the blood, personifies the resurrection in the spring, the greenery burned by the heat of the sun.
Flower of love, happiness, fidelity and sorrow.
Communicative means of creating images and symbols
Death of Hyacinth. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1752-53
At the burial place of Hyacinth, in Amikla, hyacinthia (hyacinthia) were held annually - festivities in honor of Hyacinth, the biggest holiday of the Spartans, which was celebrated in July in the Peloponnese, in Asia Minor, in southern Italy, in Sicily, in Syracuse.
Over time, the cult of Hyacinth was supplanted by the cult of Apollo, and the feast of hyacinthia began to be celebrated as the feast of Apollo.
On the throne of Apollo, the ascent of Hyacinth to Olympus was depicted; According to legend, the base of the statue of Apollo, seated on the throne, was an altar in which Hyacinth was buried.
The myth of Hyacinth in painting served as the subject of a few works, including the frescoes "Apollo and Hyacinth" by Annibale Carracci and Domenichino, the painting "Hyacinth" by G. B. Tiepolo, etc.
The marble composition of B. Cellini "Apollo mourns Hyacinth" has not survived to the present. However, this plot attracted Mozart, his musical work "Apollo and Hyacinth" is dedicated to this episode.
But in addition to the works and the celebration in memory of Hyacinth, in our present there is a flower named after him and a hyacinth stone, a reddish hue.
The social significance of the myth
The myths about the transformation of people into plants are known to all peoples of the globe. And the myth of Hyacinth is one of them. But he was remembered not only by the image of spiritual love. The myth has remained one of the most famous and beautiful legends about the origin of flowers.
The name of Hyacinth is captured in the history of religions, where it is customary to consider him a pre-Greek plant god, who was revered as a deity of shepherds or one of the deities of Ancient Greece, personifying a dying and resurrecting nature, whose significance was subsequently overshadowed by Apollo, and she was reduced only to the role of a hero of tragic-lyrical legends .
But the memory of Hyacinth lives on among people. This is confirmed by the festivities in which this hero was honored and by the fact that today, as an echo from a beautiful legend, there is a hyacinth - a flower of love, fidelity and sorrow. And do not forget about this truly sadly beautiful story gives hyacinth - a stone of sadness and sorrow, crimson or reddish hue, shimmering like dewdrops of Apollo's tears, falling on Hyacinth's blood-drenched wound.
Hyacinth, like many gems, has its magical properties. So, this stone guarantees its owner an increase in the level of mental activity and the development of craving for various kinds of sciences.
Calming effects are also attributed to hyacinth: it is believed that it relieves melancholy, softens sadness and grief, gives hope, it can be worn during depression. But, despite all the advantages, hyacinth brings loneliness and unhappiness in love. Therefore, it is believed that it can only be worn temporarily - during the period of depression.
Who is not familiar with the hyacinth, that marvelous flower with a marvelous smell, which enchants us with its fragrance in the midst of deep winter, and whose lovely plumes of flowers, as if made of wax, of the most delicate shades, serve as the best decoration of our dwellings during the holidays in winter? This flower is a gift from Asia Minor, and its name in Greek means "rainy flower", since in its homeland it begins to bloom just with the onset of warm spring rains.
Ancient Greek legends, however, produce this name from Hyacinth, the charming son of the Spartan king Amycles and the muse of history and the epic Clio, with which the very origin of this flower is associated.
It happened back in those blessed times when gods and people were close to each other. This charming young man, as the legend tells, who enjoyed the boundless love of the sun god Apollo, once amused himself with this god by throwing a discus. The dexterity with which he threw it, and the fidelity of the flight of the disc, surprised everyone. Apollo was beside himself with admiration and rejoiced at the success of his favorite. But the little god of the light breeze, Zephyr, who had long been jealous of him, blew out of envy on the disk and turned it so that, flying back, it crashed into the head of poor Hyacinth and struck him to death.
Apollo's grief was boundless. In vain did he hug and kiss his poor boy, in vain did he offer to sacrifice even his immortality for him. Healing and enlivening everything with its beneficial rays, he was not able to bring it back to life ...
How, however, was to act, how to at least preserve, perpetuate the memory of this creature dear to him. And so, the legend says further, the rays of the sun began to bake the blood flowing from the dissected skull, began to thicken and fasten it, and from it grew a lovely red-lilac flower, spreading its wonderful smell over a long distance, the shape of which on one side resembled the letter A - the initial of Apollo, and on the other, Y, the initial of Hyacinth; and thus the names of two friends were forever united in it.
This flower was our hyacinth. He was transferred with reverence by the priests of Delphic Apollo to the garden that surrounded the temple of this famous oracle, and since then, in memory of the untimely deceased youth, the Spartans annually held a holiday called Hyacinthius.
These festivities took place at Amikles in Licinia and lasted three days.
On the first day, dedicated to mourning the death of Hyacinth, it was forbidden to decorate the head with wreaths of flowers, eat bread and sing hymns in honor of the sun.
The next two days were devoted to various ancient games, and even slaves were allowed to be completely free these days, and the altar of Apollo was filled with sacrificial gifts.
For the same reason, probably, we often find in ancient Greece the image of both Apollo himself and the muses, decorated with this flower.
Such is one Greek legend about the origin of the hyacinth. But there is another thing that connects him with the name of the famous hero of the Trojan War, Ajax.
This noble son of King Telamon, ruler of the island of Salamis near Attica, was, as you know, the bravest and most prominent of the heroes of the Trojan War after Achilles. He wounded Hector with a stone thrown from a sling, and hit him with his powerful hand there are many enemies near the Trojan ships and fortifications. And so, when, after the death of Achilles, he entered into a dispute with Odysseus about the possession of the weapon of Achilles, he was awarded to Odysseus. The unfair award caused Ajax such a heavy insult that he, beside himself with grief, pierced himself with a sword. And from the blood of this hero, another legend says, a hyacinth grew, in the form of which this tradition sees the first two letters of Ajax's name - Аi, which at the same time served as an interjection among the Greeks, expressing sorrow and horror.
In general, this flower among the Greeks was, apparently, a flower of grief, sadness and death, and the very legend of the death of Hyacinth was only an echo of popular beliefs, popular belief. Some indication of this can be one saying of the Delphic oracle, who, being asked during the famine and plague that raged once in Athens: what to do and how to help, ordered five daughters of the alien Hyacinth to be sacrificed on the tomb of the Cyclops Gerest.
On the other hand, there are indications that sometimes it was also a flower of joy: for example, young Greek women cleaned their hair with it on the wedding day of their girlfriends.
Originating from Asia Minor, hyacinth was also loved by the inhabitants of the East, especially the Persians, where the famous poet Firdousi continually compares the hair of Persian beauties with the twisting limbs of a hyacinth flower and in one of his poems, for example, says:
"Her lips were more fragrant than a light breeze,
And hyacinth-like hair is more pleasant,
Than Scythian musk..."
Exactly the same comparisons are made by another famous Persian poet Hafiz; and there is even a local saying about the women of the island of Chios that they curl their curls as well as a hyacinth curls its petals.
From Asia Minor, hyacinth was transferred to Europe, but first to Turkey. When and how - it is not known, earlier, he appeared in Constantinople and soon became so fond of Turkish wives that he became a necessary accessory to the gardens of all harems.
The ancient English traveler Dallaway, who visited Constantinople in early XVII, centuries, tells that in the seraglio of the sultan himself a special wonderful garden was arranged, in which, apart from hyacinths, no other flower was allowed. The flowers were planted in oblong flowerbeds lined with elegant Dutch tiles and enchanted every visitor with their lovely color and wonderful smell. Enormous money was spent on maintaining these gardens, and in the era of flowering of hyacinths, the Sultan spent all his free hours in them, admiring their beauty and reveling in their strong smell, which oriental people love so much.
In addition to the ordinary, so-called Dutch, hyacinths, in these gardens they also bred their close relative - the grape-shaped hyacinth (H. muscari) 1, bearing the name “Mushi-ru-mi” in Turkish and denoting in the oriental language of flowers “You will get everything, that I can only give you."
Hyacinth came to Western Europe only in the second half of the 17th century, and first of all to Vienna, which at that time had the closest relations with the East. But here it was cultivated and was the property of only a few inveterate gardeners. It became public property only after it came to Holland, to Haarlem.
He got here, as they say, by chance on a Genoese ship broken by a storm off the Dutch coast.
The ship was carrying various goods somewhere, and with them hyacinth bulbs. The boxes in which they were thrown up by the waves broke on the rocks, and the bulbs that fell out of them washed ashore.
Here, having found suitable soil for themselves, the bulbs took root, sprouted and bloomed. Observant flower lovers immediately drew attention to them and, amazed by their extraordinary beauty and wonderful smell, transplanted them into their garden.
Then they began to cultivate and cross them, and in this way they obtained those wondrous varieties that constituted an inexhaustible object of pleasure both as a culture and as a source of enormous income, which has enriched them since then for whole centuries.
It was in 1734, i.e., almost a hundred years after the tulip, just at the time when the fever that gripped the cultivation of this flower began to cool down a bit and there was a need for some other one that could distract from this passion and if possible, replace the tulip. The hyacinth was just such a flower.
Graceful in shape, beautiful in color, surpassing the tulip in its wonderful smell, it soon became the favorite of all the Dutch, and they began to spend no less money on its breeding and breeding of its new varieties and varieties than on a tulip. Especially this passion began to flare up when it was possible to accidentally bring out a terry hyacinth.
Hobbyists are said to have owed this interesting variety to an attack of gout by the Haarlem horticulturist Piotr Ferelm. This well-known gardener was in the habit of mercilessly plucking from flowers every malformed bud, and no doubt an ugly bud that appeared on one of the especially precious species of hyacinth would have undergone the same fate. Fortunately, however, Ferelm fell ill with gout at this time and, forced to lie in bed for more than a week, did not visit his garden. In the meantime, the bud blossomed and, to the great surprise of Ferelm himself and all Dutch gardeners, turned out to be a never-before-seen terry form of hyacinth.
Such an accident was enough to arouse general curiosity and arouse the passions that had been subdued. To look at this miracle moved from all over Holland, even gardeners came from neighboring countries; everyone wanted to see for themselves the existence of such an incredible form and, if possible, acquire it in order to have something that no one else had.
Ferelm christened this variety with the name "Maria", but, unfortunately, both this specimen and the next two terry specimens died with him, and only the fourth survived, to which he gave the name "King of Great Britain". It was from him that all the now available terry hyacinths went, so that this variety is considered in Holland to this day the progenitor of all terry hyacinths.
Then Dutch gardeners began to pay attention to increasing the number of flowers in the flower arrow, to increasing the size of the flowers themselves, to obtaining a new color ...
Especially their efforts were aimed at obtaining the brightest possible yellow color, since among the blue, crimson and white tones that distinguished the colors of these flowers, this color was very rare.
The achievement of a triumph in any of these aspirations, the receipt of each outstanding variety, was invariably accompanied by a festival. The lucky gardener invited all his neighbors to christen the newborn, and the christening was always accompanied by a rich feast, especially if new variety received the name of some famous person or royal person.
How much such novelties could cost at that time is even hard to believe, especially if we take into account the relatively high value of money at that time and the cheapness of food products. Paying 500 - 1,000 guilders for a bulb of a new variety was even considered very ordinary, but there were bulbs, such as, for example, the bright yellow "Ofir", for which they paid 7,650 guilders per piece, or "Admiral Lifken", for which 20,000 guilders were paid! And this was when a cartload of hay cost almost a few kopecks, and for a kopeck a day it was possible to feed perfectly ...
More than two centuries have passed since then, and although Dutch hobbyists no longer pay such crazy money for new varieties, the hyacinth remains their favorite flower. And until now, outstanding horticultural firms arrange annually the so-called parade fields, that is, entire gardens of flowering hyacinths, located in rooms covered from above with an awning. And masses of people flock there to see and admire these wonderful flowers.
At such exhibitions, every gardener tries to show off the perfection of his cultures, some original novelty in front of his associates and interested amateurs and receive special awards appointed by large gardening firms.
Here, of course, not only vanity now plays a role, but also another, more important goal - a commercial one: to prove to both the Dutch public and numerous foreign customers the superiority of their product and to acquire a new buyer. And this goal is achieved in most cases. Thanks to this kind of exhibitions, many insignificant firms have moved forward and have now become first-class. Thanks to them, every year the number of new varieties is increasing and increasing. From the former 40 varieties, their number has now increased to 2,000, and not a year passes without a few more new ones.
From Holland, the culture of hyacinths passed primarily to Germany (Prussia), and then to France. In Prussia, it began to develop mainly shortly after the resettlement of the Huguenots expelled by the Edict of Nantes from France, who generally transferred to Germany, and especially to Berlin, a taste for beautiful flowering plants, beautiful tree pruning and beautiful garden planning.
But she achieved special fame only in the second half of the 18th century, when David Boucher (a descendant of the Huguenots) staged the first exhibition of hyacinths in Berlin. The flowers exhibited by him so impressed with their beauty and captivated with a wonderful smell all Berlin lovers of floriculture and the Berlin public in general, that many took up their cultivation with no less zeal than the Dutch in the old days. Even such serious people as the court chaplains Reinhard and Schroeder were fond of them, who from that time not only cultivated these flowers in huge quantities almost until their death, but also brought out many of their varieties.
A few years later, in Berlin, on Komendantskaya Street, near the hyacinth crops of this Busche, even a special Berlin coffee house founded by his relative, Peter Busche, where all the nobility and all the rich of Berlin gathered to drink coffee and admire hyacinths. This visit has become such a fashion that King Friedrich Wilhelm III himself has repeatedly visited Boucher and admired his flowers.
Such a passion for hyacinths among the Berlin public did not take long to give rise to a mass of Bushe's competitors among other gardeners, and in 1830, entire fields were covered with hyacinth crops near the Schleswig Gate. Suffice it to say that up to 5,000,000 hyacinth bulbs were planted on them annually.
To see these flowering fields of hyacinths, every year in May, the entire population of Berlin flocked there: both horse and foot, rich and poor. It was something like a mania, some kind of pilgrimage. Thousands of people stood around these fields for hours and reveled in the beauty of the flowers and their wonderful smell. It was considered unforgivable not to visit the hyacinth fields and not to see them ... At the same time, gardeners charged a considerable entrance fee for a close examination of the flowers, and also earned a lot of money from the sale of bouquets of cut hyacinths, which every more or less wealthy person considered buying for himself compulsory.
But everything in the world is transient. And these hyacinth exhibitions and fields, so famous at the beginning of the forties, gradually began to bother, less and less to attract the public, and ten years later they completely stopped. Now only memories remain of these huge fields (their area is all cut up by the railway), and although hyacinths are still cultivated in some places on the south side of Berlin, there is no mention of the former millions of bulbs. At present, the largest is if several acres are occupied under these crops, which give an income of 75 thousand to 100,000 rubles.
In France, hyacinths were also very loved, but far from making such a splash as in Holland and Prussia. Here they attracted special attention only when scientists began to cultivate them in vessels with water without any admixture of earth, and when in 1787 the Marquis Gonfleier, at a public meeting of the French Society of Agriculture, acquainted Parisians with the original experience of cultivating hyacinth in water - a stem in water, and roots up. The sight of such a hyacinth blooming its beautiful flowers in the water amazed everyone.
The news of this new mode of culture quickly spread throughout Paris, and then throughout France, and everyone wanted to repeat this experience for themselves. Everyone was especially surprised that with such development in water, the leaves completely retained their size, shape and color, and the flowers, although they turned out to be somewhat paler, were nevertheless fully developed.
Since then, the culture of hyacinths in France began to come into fashion more and more. Especially famous was the culture of small early hyacinths, called Roman (Romaine).
But this charming flower had at one time a very sad use in France: it was used to stupefy, reaching the point of poisoning, those persons whom for some reason they wanted to get rid of. This was especially practiced with women, and, moreover, mainly in the 18th century.
A bouquet or basket of hyacinths, usually intended for this purpose, was sprinkled with something so poisonous that it could be masked by the strong smell of these flowers, or the flowers were placed in such a quantity in the bedroom or boudoir that their strong smell produced terrible dizziness in nervous people and even caused death.
It is difficult to guarantee how true the latter is, but in the memoirs of Mr. Sam, who lived at the French court during the time of Napoleon I, a case is cited when an aristocrat who married a rich man killed him by cleaning his bedroom every day with a mass of blooming hyacinths. A similar case is given by Freiligrath in his poem "Revenge of the Flowers". And in general, it should be noted, there are many people who cannot stand the stupefying smell of this flower, feel dizzy and even faint.
Of the newest writers, we also meet Edgar Allan Poe in his story "Arnheim Manor", where he describes entire fields of flowering hyacinths.
1 Obviously, this refers to muscari, or mouse hyacinth, in particular, m. racemose.
