A Stroll Through the Garden: Paperwhites can help with the winter blahs
Last week, while doing my normal exercise routine in the deep end of the pool, I found myself talking to a number of wonderful ladies who all were looking out the window and seeing the gray skies. Just wondering, has anyone got really tired of the winter yet?
One lady asked me what I knew about paperwhites and amaryllis. I’m going to take this one step at a time, and we’ll first try to bring some color back into your life.
One of the easiest ways to bring some color back into your home is to consider going to a greenhouse or a florist and see if you can find some of the amazing, reasonably priced paperwhite bulbs. Paperwhites, or Narcissus papyraceus, are traditional Christmas flowers; millions are sold throughout the world.
Our paperwhites are the longest cultivated and most widely grown narcissus in the world, although they originated somewhere in the region surrounding the Mediterranean Sea — which means they are Zone 8 and 10 plants.
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The plant is raised in Israel; 20 million bulbs exported last year
This narcissus has been grown in Israel raised in fields as a nursery crop for many years. I read many years ago that the volume of paperwhites has been increasing. Last year Israel exported more than 20 million bulbs. Some of the varieties you may encounter on the market are Nazareth, Jerusalem, Israel and Galilee.
I guess it’s not that surprising you would find these bulbs in Israel. For the past 30 years you are most likely to find the variety Ziva as the most popular, and likely the bulb that you would see on your shelves. Ziva has a number of short comings due to its strong scent, poor re-blooming, and it will not come back easily if you grow one in your tropical garden.
When my family and I were renting plants, I remember testing paperwhites in some of the rentals, and had a mixed response. Some of our clients liked the scent of this flower. There were people who had a profound response to this plant. They said, “Get it out of here now.”
The narcissus "Inbal" is an improvement in its scent over the older traditional bulb and said to be able to perform better in gardens. Personally, I found the scent pleasant.
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Most paperwhites are grown for one season indoors and then discarded. These bulbs don’t need soil. Because you don’t need soil with these bulbs, we were happy to include these easy, ready-to-force bulbs as a part of the flower circuit for our plant rentals. If you are going to discard this bulb, you can grow it easily without soil.
Tips for growing paperwhites
As you may have guessed, if you want to keep this bulb from year to year you are going to need to keep them in a pot with soil. Each bulb needs to be planted three-four inches deep in a light potting soil. Keep the soil evenly moist, not sopping wet. All narcissus prefer bright light. Paperwhites should come into bloom in three to four weeks.
When the flowers have stopped blooming, allow the pot to remain until the leaves completely turn brown. The nutrients taken up by the bulb while the leaves turn brown will allow the bulb to survive into the future. Top dress the pot with 1 tablespoon of bulb food.
Until you want to start them next year, you will store the bulbs in their pots in cool shade and stop watering them. To start them the following year, you will need to allow three-weeks after you move the pots back into the warmth and the sunlight. You will need to start watering them once again with the new season.
Hope you have a great stroll through your own tropical indoor garden and, if you can, wander inside a greenhouse. Good luck on seeing all in bloom. In my little stroll through a local greenhouse, I saw kalanchoe, crown of thorns, shrimp plant, cyclamen, Streptocarpus, orchids, bromeliads and many more in bloom. Being a plant lover, I felt pretty good after my little stroll as I left and went back into the gray winter landscape.
If you have a challenge with your plants during your stroll, drop me an email at ericlarson546@yahoo.com. I shall do my best to help. Thank you for your participation.
Eric Larson of Jeromesville is a veteran landscaper and gardening enthusiast and a founding board member of the Ohio Chapter of Association of Professional Landscape Designers.
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: A Stroll Through the Garden: Paperwhites can brighten a home in winter
