EVERY YEAR I FALL FOR IT: those fat paperwhite narcissus bulbs at the garden center, promising winter cheer. And then I pot them up, and they grow too tall and flop, and (worst of all) stink up the house. What’s the remedy (besides unpotting them and putting them outside as an offering to Buddha, my recent “solution”)?
I got the answer to at least part of the riddle from Sidney, a Rhode Island gardener who’d attended a lecture I gave there recently. Too bad I didn’t hear earlier, because Sidney (who charmingly says, “I have been gardening for 81 years and I think I would just shrivel up if I were taken away from the country”) had the trick for the floppiness:
Grow your paperwhite bulbs in 8 parts water to 1 part gin or vodka. This works out to half a cup of spirits to 4 cups water, and keeps the leaves short, Sidney confirms, after growing boozy bulbs for three years.
In the past I have grown the paperwhites in tall glass cylinders, in pebbles and water, so that the leaves and stems are supported as they grow by the sides of the vessel. But Sidney’s method allows you to choose any variety of pot, which sounds ideal.
I’m thinking next year I may also add a few drops of bleach to the mixture (this is starting to sound scary, like some mad-scientist experiment instead of floriculture, I know). But a few drops of bleach in a vase of water helps limit the strong scent of cut flowers like Allium, the ornamental onion, so perhaps it would work in this case, too. Anybody have any first-hand knowledge?
Related posts:
sounds like a damned poor use of gin to me
like you, paperwhites are not on my list of sources of winter cheer. a suitable such list for me would include:
1. bulldog gin (see above)
2. listening to the scrunch while snowshoeing
3. getting acclimated to the cold over the course of the first few weeks of winter so i can go out wearing just an old sweater or canvas jacket (it’s a guy thing)
4. cutting nasty brush and briars that i wouldn’t be able to get into in the other seasons when they are in full leaf
5. making soups and stews
6. eating soups and stews
7. give thanks that i didn’t lock in the fuel heating price last spring that was on offer
8. making lists (not enough time in other seasons)
9. remembering how when i was young i thought it was so cool that you could see your breath when it is cold
10. looking into the fire and watching the flame ballet
I feel the same way about paperwhites. It’s a love/hate relationship. I also loved Chris’ response. That list is a keeper.
Huh. Booze! Who knew?
I’ll have to try that, but with one of those non-stinky varieties (supposedly there are some out there). I’m with you on not liking their funk.
love # 9, chris.
I just did a post about using alcohol on paperwhites last week. Check here for the exact procedures.
http://www.gardenfreshliving.com/2008/11/give-that-bulb-a-martini.html
You can use gin, vodka or even rubbing alcohol!
It really works. I have comparison photos on the post. One paperwhite with alcohol and one without. It works!
I use rubbing alcohol and it works nicely. Never one to use gin without tonic.
I have not yet planted my bulbs, now I will ad the gin to the mix. I do not mind the smell for a couple of days, but then it is to much. So this recipe for planting sounds great.
Sounds like we can start an AA Chapter here with this group, self included. Ha!
Thanks to you all for the tips, and Chris, Chris, Chris: Oh, my. Watch out or you will become a columnist here on AWTG and I will just retire for real this time, not pretend-retirement in which I work more than I did when I worked for Martha even.
Welcome to Jill, Theresa, Gaia, and hello again to baby sister-friend Anastasia. If you think Chris is a clever and funny one (and he certainly is) perhaps you will get a giggle over at her place, too. Like right here.
I loathe paperwhites. I love the sugar-gleam of their petals, but the scent makes me gag.
Sign me up for the AA chapter. I had given up on paperwhites but with the above information (gin included) I’ll try again. Great list, Chris.
Love the response from Chris :)
I’m growing amaryllis for the first time, and was very tempted to pick up paperwhites too. I’ll have to remember this tip if I try them.
I would try this method before you pot up a lot….. Your old boss Martha suggested this and I tried it last year with poor results! I found that the blooms were very weak- kind of translucent. Not all the buds bloomed and they faded very quickly. I force mine in pebbles, which I like but I start them in a darkish place. When they start to grow, then I put them in a sunny spot, but not too sunny as they grow too fast and/or fade quickly.
I adore paperwhites especially the smell!!!
Good luck ;-D
Welcome, Debbie. Ha! My old boss Martha…you know, it’s very nearly my first anniversary of living up here on my own and being unemployed. So a timely phrase indeed that you use.
I will watch out for drunken bulbs; maybe a weak solution and the early dark treatment you say will help enough without having them get a hangover of unsightly translucent blooms. Hmmm…
@ margaret, thanks but this is your show, and you do it well
but i was interested in my immediate response to your usage of of the term “winter cheer”; i realized how much chagrined i was that i can’t do gardening in the winter as a source of cheer (unless i am just doing fall cleanup way late), how much gardening constitutes a reliable source of cheer for me in season, and all this sort of led me to consider what the hell were my sources of cheer in the winter
and if you think of it, the exercise of clarifying for yourself what cheer the winter brings you is much more important in the winter than any other season
Just love this blog. Am so relieved we can use rubbing alcohol and not have to “waste” the good stuff. I am intrigued however and will probably try this. (thank you Margaret, had never heard of this)
The flopping or “hanging over” of paperwhites is very annoying, but not worth my gin. Perhaps they have already been into my stash and is the reason they are “hungover” :)
My favorites are the little contraptions devised of bamboo stakes and raffia to tie up the hangovers.
In this climate, paperwhites grow right well out of doors, blooming in late January or early February.
Welcome, Nell Jean. Yes, have tied them up some years like that, too. I am fascinated how well the ones I unpotted and put out for Buddha are faring–not missing a beat.
Hmmm…I too have had my battles with paperwhites. Too cold here in WI to put them outside and the fantasy of the paperwhites never seems to match the insipid reality.
This year I think I am going to sit down and use that vodka to toast my strong-stemmed, non-stinky, vibrantly red amaryllis ‘Grand Cru’. And we’ll all be the happier.
Another way to combat the floppiness is to give the roots a good headstart.
I pot mine up and put them in a cool dark place with their first drink of water and leave them for about a week and a half.
The soil and water cue the roots to start growing, but without light the leaves don’t develop as quickly. With a big healthy root system they don’t tend to flop over as much.
I’ve gotta mark down on the calendar when I planted them and where…not something you want to forget.
Margaret, where did you speak in RI?
My solution to stinky paperwhites was to abandon those from Israel…the ones that now dominate the market. Scouring Brent & Becky’s catalog a few years ago, I found the “old time” paper whites in those pages and they are sweethearts. ‘Chinese Sacred Lily,’ Grand Soleil d’Or and the incredibly floriferous ‘Golden Rain’ have the marvelous fragrance I remember from childhood.
I also talked with Brent about the problem, asking him why they now stink when I’d grown paperwhites decades ago that did not stink. He was the one who informed me that the Israeli hybrids are the stinky ones. He also claims that one of the newer Israeli introductions, ‘Inbal,’ has a pleasant fragrance. Unfortunately, ‘Ziva,’ the stinkiest of them all now seems to dominate the market.
@Bobster: Spoke at Blithewold in Bristol, RI.
Welcome, Vicki. Great tip. I knew I had read about less-fragrant varieties, and I could not recall where. Thanks for this.
If you use isopropyl rubbing alcohol (usually 70-percent alcohol) dilute it with 10 or 11 parts water. It’s stronger than 80-proof (40 percent alcohol) spirits.
Find more info in the original paper from the Flowerbulb Research Program at Cornell University here: http://www.hort.cornell.edu/department/faculty/wmiller/bulb/Pickling_your_Paperwhites.pdf
i’m a paper white junkie, so don’t come visit if you hate the smell cuz they’re in every room of my house; the only sweeter perfume would be gardenia or jasmine. my solution to tall & droopy? tie them loosly in place with a silk ribbon. and cut the droopiest of the droopy, which will escape the ribbon, for bud vases.
I did not read every comment here so maybe someone mentioned that the NYTimes did a story where they tested the theory and it’s an urban garden legend. I love the fragrance but what I usually do is put the paperwhites in the front hall. You enter to a blast of warm air and fragrance like a greenhouse and just walk through it. Our botanic garden (Olbrich in Madison WI) puts twigs of red dogwood in their pots of paperwhites to hold up the stems which is what I now do.
Oops. I didn’t intend to mislead you…these older varieties are intensely fragrant…but sweetly so rather than yucky-musky.
Oh dear. Oh my. Oh, here we go. I’m Margaret’s sister, and I just took delivery on my annual box of 100 paperwhites after lugging home the 25 tall glass (square or round) holders and 15 bags of tiny river rocks with which I’ll make my holiday host and teachers-at-my-daughter’s-school gifts. Last year one teacher wrote me a note thanking me for the “onions.” (I do wonder how her Christmas stuffing tasted). I love the gift, always make several for our home, and adore the smell as they bloom; I interpret how they fall over as being exhausted by their own beauty. And there you have it: sisters.
I couldn’t agree more, Marion, as I adore paperwhites especially variety ‘Constantinople’ which takes a full 9 weeks to bloom giving great anticipation for January flowers. I move pots to a very cool room or out to the porch in the evening(weather not below freezing, of course) when possible and they stand up straight as soldiers when they come back inside after that. There are two kinds of people- those who love that smell and those that don’t. I do!
Or you could do the Adams family thing and just decapitate them. That would solve the stinky problem as well as the hangover.
Welcome, GCH. I like calling it the ‘Adams Family Thing.’ I had forgotten Morticia’s propensity for disembodied blooms. Good idea w/paperwhites. Do come see us again.
I fell for paperwhites this year, after many years of not doing them. So far, they seem to have good posture.
But I’ve already decided, from now on out, to buy fresh flowers at my local New Seasons market. Right now, they have an all-white bouquet of flowers that is just stunning.
Welcome, Jean. Paperwhites with good posture: love it! Do come see us again.
I can’t help it, I LOVE the smell of Narcissas (paper whites).
Put the planted-up bowls in complete darkness until about 2 inches of roots have formed, and the top is sprouting. This helps prevent lankiness which is a problem in South Africa, where I garden, due to sudden warm springtimes.
Welcome, Sarina…all the way from South Africa, the land of amazing native bulbs. Great suggestion; of course I should know all this but thank goodness you are all here to help.
Andrew Beckman (Martha’s Sirius Radio garden expert) said he almost lost all his paperwhites by using the rubbing alcohol to start his plants. He suggests starting them in just water and adding the well-diluted alcohol of choice after growth starts. Also, when paperwhites droop, you can put them out in the cold for a time and they will right themselves.
Welcome, Kathy, and thanks for the alcohol update. Who knew this was such a tricky business, so perilous? Great tips (Andrew is one my regular go-to’s for help, too).
Too late for alcohol, my paperwhites are laying on the table beside their short vase. I even tied them with ribbon last week. What to do now. I think I will try to repot them in a tall vase. Any suggestions?
Welcome, Alleson. Yes, either repot in a tall cylinder or I think turn them into a vase of cut flowers (and keep them cool so they will last). Thanks for visiting.
Girl, you crack me up….so very funny and wow what is funnier is that it works…come by and blog with me.
Let me see if I can make a frog boy for ya and put him on the blog…yeah maybe he also needs a girl friend named Lilly.
See Ya Soon.
OMG- my boyfriend hates the smell of paperwhites… I hate that they fall all over the place… but hey I plant them every year because its what I do dammit!!! The vodka cocktail is perfect for me… too late for them this year… they are already like cornstalks… but next year may do the vodka and a little of the addams family thing… that way at least I tried to keep the stinch down … giggle…. giggle…. burp..
Welcome, Chloe. Sounds like you have a plan. Thanks for visiting, and come back soon.
Now does anyone know how to remove those glass rocks from the paperwhite roots when they’re over?
Welcome, Msgalvez. Interesting what a mess of spaghetti the paperwhites roots prove to be. I have to say I use gravel from my patio for mine, and after the bulbs are done, I just take the whole thing out to the patio I stile the gravel from and upturn it and shake everyone out right there. Still lose a few pebbles in the process that won’t come loose. Hope to see you again soon.
My solution in the south is to plant paperwhites at the entrance of my house. This way everyone enjoys the fragrance as they come and go but are not locked in the house with the the overwhelming fragrance.
I usually plant for a New Year’s Eve Party and then enjoy them through the month. LeNae
I sent you some pics off my flickr page.
Welcome, LeNae, and thank you for the link. The pots of paperwhites are beautiful, and outdoors=better on the nose, yes. In your climate it’s a great solution. Hope to see you again soon.
Hi Margaret, I’ve never done a blog before. I received a beautiful silver pot filled with 4 paperwhite bulbs ready to bloom about 3 weeks ago as a gift from a friend for our 25 Wedding Anniversary. They bloomed shortly thereafter and where beautiful, with their delicate white blossoms. We have a puppy that I thought had urinated somewhere on the tile floor. I cleaned the kitchen tile and the hardwood floors thinking that was where the smell was coming from until my husband figured out it was the plant. We put it in the dining room away from the central location of our house. My kids told me to never get a plant like that again. They have such beautiful flowers though. The blooms are almost spent and we were lucky to not have any droopiness. Can I dry them out like tulips and put them in a dark place and try to force them again for next year or should I just throw them away? I hate to throw anything away. I live in Cleveland, so planting them outside in the frozen snow is not an option.
Welcome, Jill to A Way to Garden and to the world of blog-commenting. I’m so flattered it is here that you made your first comment. As for the paperwhites, I’m afraid they won’t like being forced again, so I’d toss them in your cold zone. As for blaming the puppy: exactly. Smells at least that bad to me, too. Apparently, as the others in this long stream of comments have offered, there are less-unpleasant varieties that I think each of u must seek out in catalogs next year if we plan to try paperwhites again. Hope to see you soon.