in my garden- Getting Rid of Grape Hyacinth Bulbs

One of the surest signs of spring is the emergence of bulbs.  From tulips to daffodils and hyacinths, once I see those spear-shaped leaves poking through my soil I breathe a sigh of relief knowing winter is on it’s way out.  Usually.

When we moved into our new house last March we started and immediate yard overhaul.  There was no grass, just a patch of weedy grasses, fescues, and thorns.  Among the imposter lawn we found some dark green shoots. They reminded me of a slightly curvy, waxy chive leaf.  Whatever they were I knew I did not want them in my flower beds so I grabbed the shoots near the soil and gave a firm tug.   I was incredibly surprised that when I tugged the plant finally gave way and I found a bulb at the end of my weed.

After adding a few truck loads of mulch to my beds in June I didn’t see any more of these little weeds.  It wasn’t until cooler weather came again in the fall that they began coming up ALL OVER my yard, choking my flower beds.  I vowed to do a little research and solve the problem of this mystery bulb weed and eradicate it from my yard.  Soon after this vow was made I found flowers emerging from my weed.  Mystery solved, the flowers were undoubtedly those of the grape hyacinth bulb.

So here it is, grape hyacinths: the problem and the solution.

Grape hyacinths grow from a small bulb or corm.  They are a cool season corm, which means they like the temperatures of both early spring and mid-late fall.  These are the seasons in which the corm will send up dark green, waxy, shoots.  They get their name from their blossoms, their clustered blue-purple flowers look like miniature grapes.  They can be a beautiful addition to any garden, adding spring interest and color.

Here’s the problem.  In zones 4-8 the corms naturalize easily.  This means that they stay in the ground growing long after the flowers have come and gone.  Each corm will produce tiny offsets call cormels.

Each of these little cormels can detach from the mother corm, grow big and strong, and eventually start producing it’s own little family of cormels.  So the cycle continues. Now to some gardeners this might sound like a dream.  You buy a dozen grape hyacinth bulbs and within a few years you have literally hundreds of tiny, purple clustered flowers.

The simple truth is that a weed is defined as any plant growing where it shouldn’t be.  Grass becomes a weed when it creeps in to our flower beds, just like sunflowers become weeds when they start popping up in the tomato row.  Normally I wouldn’t be opposed to a vigorous, blooming plant in my flower beds, but there is a problem with these hyacinth.  Most of them don’t bloom.  Out of the thousands {and I literally mean thousands} of grape hyacinths coming up through my soil I only get a smattering of blossoms.  They sit there with their dark waxy leaves, looking like grass has overtaken my beds, and stealing water and nutrients from my showy, intentional plants.  This officially moved them into my “weed” category.

Removing grape hyacinth requires a combination of blood, sweat, and tears.  Their foliage doesn’t react well to foliar sprays like round up due to the waxy coating.  The most successful way to remove these pests is by digging them out, and I mean digging. Since their corms can be firmly anchored in the soil, and due to the fact that their sprouts are not super sturdy, the leaves will separate and leave the corm in the ground if you try to yank them out.

In order to decrease your chances of leaf breakage it’s best to loosen the soil around the bulb with a shovel, grasp the leaves right at the base of the soil, then slowly and firmly begin to pull the bulb out.  If there’s a lot of resistance it’s best to stop and loosen the soil a bit more before continuing.

They key to eradicating a yard infested by grape hyacinth bulbs is persistence.  Chances are you wont be able to remove all the bulbs on the first go around.  The teeny cormels break off easily from the mother plant and can be lost in the soil.  The hard truth is that it can take years to have a bulb free yard. I’ve already got the better part of a 25 gallon tree container full of these little suckers, and I know there’s been cormels left behind.   It’s an uphill battle, but it can be won with a little perseverance.