Paperwhites look delicious, smell delicious and are dead easy to grow.
You can buy them in bunches, yes, but if you grow them from bulbs, they’ll last for weeks. The ones in this picture shot up in about four weeks, have been in flower just as long, and don’t show any signs of wilting. If you plant them now, you won’t have them in time for Christmas, but blimey they’ll cheer up the January blues. Bulbs are harder to get online now—they sell out in the autumn—but most garden centres will still have buckets of them (Narcissus Ziva is our favourite).
There are two ways to plant Paperwhites: one in compost or bulb fibre, the other – very elegant – in glass jars with pebbles and water. This is a tip from the late Elspeth Thompson, a multi-talented gardener, writer and interiors person. Check out her books here.
To plant Paperwhites in bulb fibre or compost: Fill a pot or planter with bulb fibre (you can get this from any garden centre and many hardware shops), or make your own by mixing compost with a couple of handfuls of perlite or grit. Crucially, you want to create plenty of drainage, so broken terracota or polystyrene in the bottom of your planter is a good idea too. Push the bulbs into the fibre or compost close together, though not touching each other or the sides of the planter. Don’t plant them deeply. The tops of the bulbs (the pointier ends) should be just poking out of the top of the compost. Give the compost a bit of a water, so it’s damp rather than soaking. Put them in a cold, dark place so the roots have a chance to grow and leave them there until you can see about 5cm of stem. This can take anything from about 3 to 8 weeks, though Paperwhites are generally quick to sprout. Meanwhile, keep the compost slightly damp. Once they have reached their 5cm, bring them inside into the warmth and light and watch them grow in front of your eyes. We then put a bit of moss over the compost to make it all look green and fresh and posh, and use narrow stakes to prop up the stalks when they get tall. (Elspeth Thompson recommends using hazel or other twigs with catkins as a support system, which looks really pretty, but we haven’t got that far yet).
Planting in glass jars with pebbles and water: Fill a shallow glass bowl with pebbles and a couple of bits of bashed up artist’s charcoal (this stops the water from smelling). Put the bulbs on top of the pebbles, pointier ends up, so they aren’t touching each other or the sides of their bowl. Then add just enough water to touch the base of the bulbs so that the roots have access to it and can grow (if you drown the bulbs in water, they’ll rot). Keep them in the cold while the roots establish and make sure there is always enough water in the bowls for the roots to be in contact with it and therefore able to drink. Once you can see green shoots of about 5cm, bring them inside. The warmer you keep them, the faster they will grow.
PS: Great tip. If you do buy them in bunches, get them directly from the growers in the Scilly Isles, here, where you can get 60 stems for £20 and they are delivered to your door within a couple of days.
