Hyacinth is a popular fall planted bulb for cheerful, fragrant spring blooms. These flowers help to drive away winter glooms. The inedible bulbs contain oxalic acid and can cause skin irritation. The intensely fragrant flowers are usually blue but may be pink, white, or other colours in cultivated varieties.

Hyacinthus is a small genus of bulbous, spring-blooming perennials.They are fragrant flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae and are commonly called hyacinths /ˈhaɪəsɪnθs/. The genus is native to the area of the eastern Mediterranean from the north of Bulgaria through to the northern part of the region of Palestine.

Several species of Brodiaea, Scilla, and other plants that were formerly classified in the lily family and have flower clusters borne along the stalk also have common names with the word “hyacinth” in them.

Hyacinthus grows from bulbs, each producing around four to six linear leaves and one to three spikes or racemes of flowers.

 In the wild species, the flowers are widely spaced with as few as two per raceme in H. litwinovii and typically six to eight in H. orientalis which grows to a height of 15–20 cm (6–8 in). Cultivars of H. orientalis have much denser flower spikes and are generally more robust.