How to Propagate Hyacinths by Cutting Off the Basal Plate

A hyacinth corm stores the nutrients collected by the roots and foliage of the plant. A healthy corm has a basal plate, the remains of the old corm from the past flowering season, and the new corm that stores the nutrients for the next flowering period. The roots grow from the basal plate. The basal plate and old corm separate from the new corm after flowering as the new corm forms a new basal plate and roots. Small cormels form on the old corm over the course of the growing season. The cormels eventually develop into full flowering corms after separation occurs.

Knife
Box
Peat moss

Instructions

- 1
  Cut the bottom of the basal plate off the corm with a sharp knife. Make the cut slightly above the plate so a small section of the corm remains attached.
- 2
  Fill a shallow box with moistened peat moss, which provides a sterile and disease-free medium. If water droplets form when you squeeze the peat, it's too moist.
- 3
  Set the basal plate, root side down, on top of the peat moss. Store the box in a humid, dark 70-degree Fahrenheit location for two to three weeks, or until small cormels begin to form on top of the basal plate.
- 4
  Move the box to a humid location with a temperature of 85 degrees. Store the developing cormels in this location until they begin to form roots, which can take between one and three months.
- 5
  Plant the cormels in a sunny, well drained garden bed once the roots form, preferably in early fall. Sow the cormels so their tops sit 1½ inches beneath the soil surface.
- 6
  Water the soil so it doesn't dry out completely until frost begins to freeze the bed. The hyacinth cormels send up foliage in spring, but they won't produce flowers until they mature, which takes approximately four years.

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