Planting Paperwhite Narcissus to Flower at Christmas
Planting Paperwhite Narcissus to Flower at Christmas
Paperwhite Narcissus will add colour and fragrance to your home over the Christmas and New Year period. Paperwhite will flower earlier than garden Narcissus. You need to plan ahead if you want your bulbs to flower for Christmas, they take anything from 6 to 13 weeks to flower depending on the temperature and where you have placed them. In cooler conditions they take about 6 weeks for the foliage to form, and another six weeks for the bulbs to flower once you have brought them into the house. As this can be three months in total you need to plant these in the second or third week of September. You should find Paperwhites available to buy from September to October.
Step 1
Choose your container. We have chosen a ceramic green trough. It doesn't have any drainage holes as we are going to have this inside the house over Christmas. As long as the bulbs are watered sparingly and not allowed to sit in water (otherwise they will rot) they will be fine for the small amount of time they will be in the container.
Step 2
Put a layer of compost in the bottom of the container. The best product for this is a Bulb Fibre which is a compost specifically designed for bulbs in containers. Alternatively you could use a multipurpose compost. Place the Narcissus bulbs pointy end upwards. As we are growing these in a container we are placing the bulbs closer together than you would if planting bulbs in the ground. The bulbs are only in here a short amount of time and the more bulbs the more impressive floral display. However ensure the bulbs do not actually touch.
Bulb Fibre is used for growing bulbs in indoor and outdoor containers, it is not used for planting bulbs in the ground. The difference between bulb fibre and multipurpose compost is that bulb fibre has a very open and free draining structure so the bulbs don't rot. Bulb Fibre has few or no nutrients as bulbs don't require them if they are only being grown short term in containers, and it has a soil 'sweetener' which is usually charcoal. The charcoal keeps the compost from becoming sour if it is in an enclosed container with no drainage holes, which is important when growing indoors.
Step 3
Gently add more Bulb Fibre so that the bulbs are covered and just the tips of the bulbs are protruding from the compost. Water sparingly (if your container has no drainage holes) and place somewhere cool. Unlike other bulbs such as Hyacinths that are grown for Christmas and New Year flowering Paperwhites do not need to be kept in the dark to initiate flowering.
Once the foliage has formed and is about 5 cm (2 inches) high they can be brought into the house. Keep them somewhere cool, such as a windowsill, the cooler they are kept the longer the flowers will last. In general they will flower for one or two weeks.
If you want a succession of flowering, plant a number of containers over a period of weeks.
Step 4
Did you know that Paperwhite bulbs do not actually need to be grown in compost at all? You can even grow these in stones or gravel if you want to.
Here we have planted our Paperwhite bulbs in a tall glass interspersed with large pebbles. This not only adds support for the plant it is very attractive as you can see the roots, shoots, leaves and flowers all at the same time.
Step 5
This picture shows a close up of a Paperwhite flower. The fragrance from this flower will fill an entire room.
After flowering the bulbs should be discarded. Paperwhites aren't hardy in most of the UK but you have nothing to lose by planting them in a sheltered spot in the garden.
