Home » Gardening Information » Sustainable Techniques
Paperwhite Narcissus: The Easiest Indoor Bulb
by Walter Chandoha
Paperwhite narcissus do not need a period of cold to bloom. Just put them in a bowl of potting mix or pebbles and add water until the bottom of each bulb is wet. (Photo: Walter Chandoha)
To fill your winter with flowers and fragrance, nothing is easier than growing paperwhite (Narcissus tazetta) bulbs.
How To Do It
- Pick a watertight bowl that's wide and deep enough to hold at least a dozen bulbs and fill it with three to six inches of soil mix, marbles, pebbles, or gravel. Make a one-inch depression in the growing medium for each bulb and place them so close so that they touch. The idea is to wind up with a crowded but impressive bouquet.
- Next, add enough water to the bowl so that the bottom of each bulb is wet. Depending on the temperature of the room, you'll have fragrant blossoms in four to six weeks; the warmer the room, the sooner the blooms. But once they bloom, the flowers will last longer in a cool room.
- As the paperwhites near maturity, some varieties' tall, slender flower stems and leaves have a tendency to topple over. Forestall this by encircling the leaves and flower stems with a decorative piece of yarn or ribbon to keep them upright as they bloom.
- If you want paperwhites in bloom throughout the winter months, buy a good supply in the fall when they are readily available at garden centers and mail-order nurseries; if you wait until December, many sources will be sold out. For nonstop bloom, start a new pot every two or three weeks. To accelerate growth, move the pots to a warm, bright spot; to slow growth, keep them dark and cool.
- Unlike forced tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths, paperwhites cannot be saved and planted out in the garden to bloom again the following year. Treat them as annuals and compost them after they have bloomed.
Encircle tall-growing paperwhites with a strand of yarn to keep them upright as they blossom. (Photo: Walter Chandoha)
Walter Chandoha has been a professional freelance photographer and writer for over 40 years, specializing in flora and fauna of the world. Much of his inspiration is drawn from his 46-acre farm in northwestern New Jersey, where he has many experimental gardens of flowers, vegetables, fruits, herbs, and ornamental grasses. His photographs and articles have appeared in books for Time/Life, Ortho, National Home Gardening Club, and Meredith Books, as well as in periodicals such as Good Housekeeping, National Geographic, Country Living, House Beautiful, Architectural Digest, Organic Gardening, Garden Design, Better Homes and Gardens, and The New York Times.