The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Grape Hyacinth

(Muscari), a genus of herbaceous bulb plants of the family Liliaceae. As the grape hyacinth grows, the bulb sends forth narrow linear leaves and a flower stalk which carries a raceme of flowers. The perianth, corolla-like and urceolate, consists of six connate violet, blue, or, less frequently, white petals, with six recurved denticles. There are about 60 species, found mainly in the Mediterranean region. In the USSR there are 19 species, 18 of which grow in alpine meadows, among shrubs and at the edges of forests in the Caucasus. Some species of grape hyacinth are grown as ornamentals.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Calla Lily Lily of the Valley Wild Ginger May Apple Jack in the Pulpit Bloodroot Spring Beauty Dutchman's Breeches Grape Hyacinth Pepper Root Jacob's Bleeding Heart Iris Lupine Primrose Solomon's Seal Toad Trillium Pansy Pussy-Toes Columbine Coralbells Oriental Poppy Shooting Star Lavender Peony Ladder Buttercup Coreopsis Dianthus Dead Nettle Armeria

COUNTDOWN TO TULIP TIME

Enjoy such pleasureful combinations as daffodils between the plants in a strawberry bed or grape hyacinths put down in the gaps in a vinca bed.

Time for tulips

There is a yellow grape hyacinth, Golden Fragrance, which is highly scented and so it would be perfect in a pot at your front door.

MAGICAL CARPETS OF PURE COLOUR

Dwarf narcissi such as February gold and tete-a-tete brighten up spring planters as do snowdrops and grape hyacinth. Tulips will carry the flowering into late spring.

Go potty all year round; Keep the winter gloom at bay with a burst of bright container blooms

Although grape hyacinth, Muscari botryoides, can become invasive, it is a most amenable bulb, seeding itself graciously in corners where nothing else grows.

ENTYER A PURPLE PATCH; The welcome arrival of pools of colour will lift spring spirits and can give even the most modest of gardens a greater sense of space

a queen of the common wasp, Vespula vulgaris, resting on grape hyacinth Picture: DAVID MAITLAND

Good, bad or ugly - insects keep country buzzing; FARM & COUNTRY

The distinctive tufty bright blue head of grape hyacinth resembles Marge Simpson's hairdo so there's much to admire.

Bulbs away; Plant time bomb of spring colour

THIS grape hyacinth is one of the most popular and widely grown spring-flowering bulbs.

Notebook; Plant of Week Muscari

This delicate spring flower, also know as the grape hyacinth, is the perfect way to bring natural scent into your home at this time of year.

We heard it on the grapevine; Sweet-smelling spring flowers make triple the impact

Wildflower choices might include poppies, mallow, ranunculus ficaria, salvia pratensis, knautia arvensis and lamium purpureum, while bulbs such as alliums, crocus, snowdrop, grape hyacinth and chionodoxa luciliae will all attract bees.

gardening

Less common types start appearing in nurseries this month, including baboon flower (Babiana), corn lily (Ixia), grape hyacinth (Muscari), harlequin flower (Sparaxis), Homeria, ranunculus, Tritonia, and species tulips such as Tulipa clusiana and T.

What to do in your garden in September

The gazebo was flanked by iron urns filled with yellow and white roses, delphinium, and grape hyacinth, and the couple knelt on prie-Dieu on a white fringe carpet under a canopy of tulle.

Purdy-Barton. (2003 Wedding Register)