Well, aren't these bloomin' lovely. If you're looking for instant gratification in the dead of winter, paperwhites are a better bet than a Chia pet. Alas, the fragrance of the readily available 'Ziva' tends to give me a headache like those induced by petroleum distillates, so I was happy to have the chance to pick up a different variety, 'Omri', at an end-of-season bulb sale in mid-December. These have come up tall and straight, with multiple blooms on a stem, and multiple stems in a bulb.
Behold: the delicate cream coloring of the six perfectly formed outer tepals (anagram of "petal"), harmonious with the pale yellow of the corona, which might otherwise be a mundane combination but for being taken to a new level by the turmeric orange of the three inner stamens. The fragrance is pleasingly noticeable when just entering the room, with the sweetness of tuberose, without being oppressive.
I forced these bulbs in gravel and water, but will try something different next year, having since read Thalassa Cruso's piece on "Paper-Whites" in The Gardening Year. In this chapter, she experiments with a number of different ways of indoor forcing. She describes her methods, the variables, and the results, with a literate precision which predates, but is reminiscent of, the recipe testing at Cook's Illustrated. In short, the problem of forcing in pebbles in water is that the growth takes the "aggravating course of rising on stilts formed by their own roots [...] with the bulbs twisted about lopsidedly on their elevated root systems." Cutting to the chase, Cruso's recommendation (which she reports as having been repeated with success in subsequent years): use an undrained container, with 3 inches of "roofing pebbles" at the bottom, topped with an inch of "rough half-made compost", with the bulb set in the compost, and covered loosely with more compost up to the bulb's neck. Ta-da: "The bulbs all flowered at the same time and at the same height without need of staking, and looked like an advertisement for paper-whites, an effect I rarely achieve."
And after they're done blooming? I think I'll leave them up for a little while, finding beauty even in the dried blooms as Rob Proctor does in Passionate Gardening: "As they dry, the petals of paperwhites resemble parchment--rather nice against gauzy curtains."
The Gardening Year. Thalassa Cruso. Lyons & Burford, 1990 edition. ISBN 1-55821-082-2 (paperback).
Passionate Gardening: Good Advice for Challenging Climates. Lauren Springer & Rob Proctor. Fulcrum Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1-55591-348-2.
beautiful! I love paperwhites.
Posted by: Alicia | January 07, 2004 at 07:03 AM