Common hyacinth

Slugs and snails

What you will see

Eaten holes in leaves and young shoots, at night and in damp weather.

How to protect

1. Prevention

   • Water in the morning, not in the evening.
   • In winter turn over the soil and remove fallen leaves — birds will pick out the eggs.
   • Encourage natural enemies (birds, toads, hedgehogs, ground beetles).
2. By hand evening, spring to autumnCollect slugs and snails in the evening by torchlight on a warm, damp night; traps made of hollowed-out citrus peel or small containers of beer sunk into the soil — empty them in the morning.
3. Biological spring to early autumnPhasmarhabditis hermaphrodita nematodes (they work on slugs, hardly on snails); apply to moist soil at 5–20 °C.

Hyacinth yellows

What you will see

Yellowing, bulb rot.

How to protect

1. Prevention

   • Healthy bulbs.
2. By hand once noticedRemove affected bulbs.

Blue mould rot

What you will see

Bulb rot.

How to protect

1. Prevention

   • Good drainage; protect pots from winter waterlogging.
2. By hand once noticedThrow away affected bulbs.