Botanical name: Narcissus (which also applies to daffodils but now includes commercial varieties known as paper whites)
Common name: Paper whites
Origin: Plant historians believe the name was first applied to tazettas, smaller cousins of narcissus, a group of bulb-based wildflowers native all around the rim of the Mediterranean Sea, and in China and Japan.
Growing: Bulbs can be grown at any time of year; however, commercial availability limits growing time to fall and early winter. Easy to grow in containers indoors, partly because they don’t demand a period of cold in order to bloom. As North Carolina State University horticulture professor Gus de Hertogh notes: “All you have to give paper whites is light, water and a container–no soil, no fertilizer.” Fill a shallow bowl or glass container with pebbles or marbles, 3 to 4 inches deep; set the bulbs on top in tight clusters (they don’t need to be any more than half an inch from one another); later, add more pebbles around the bulbs to help them stand straight when top growth is heavy. Depending on variety, the plant can go from bare bulb to full bloom in two to six weeks.
Water: Add water until it just touches the base of the bulbs; maintain water level until plants have grown, bloomed and finished.
Light: While growing, keep plants in a well-lighted place; this results in shorter, stockier plants that aren’t as likely to fall over. Once buds begin to open, move pot to a lower-light position to lengthen bloom time, De Hertogh says.
Special note: In an open vessel, fast-growing roots will be visible along with the just-as-fast foliage, enhancing the plant’s magnetism.
