Forcing Bulbs for the Winter

During the late fall and early winter avid gardeners are apt to try to find anything they can that has to do with gardening. They may pour over seed and plant catalogs, they may sharpen their shovels and hoes, and they may start to garden indoors during those cold and dreary months of winter. One thing they could do is to force some bulbs into flowering.

This is also a great activity to do with children. Forcing bulbs is relatively easy and the children will love watching them inch upwards out of the pots and finally burst into bloom. Paper whites are a good flower to do this with. Paper Whites are a type of narcissus flower just like the daffodil. They have the trumpet-shaped center like daffodils that is white or yellowish and white petals that come from it. The stem grows very tall with long spear shaped leaves and the flower grows at the top of the stem. You can’t grow them from seeds because they come in bulbs like tulips and hyacinth flowers.

Paper White Narcissus

Paper white narcissus is the flower for those born in December so that would be a great time to have the bulbs bloom. Stock up on paper whites in the fall when places that sell plants and flowers usually have them on sale. If you didn’t get any you can do a search and find many places online that will sell the bulbs to you any time of year. These flowers are native to the Mediterranean region and they have very fragrant flowers. Some people love the scent and others can’t stand it. There doesn’t seem to be a middle ground.

The reason most use paper whites to force indoors is because it is so easy. Most narcissus need a cold and dark period to be able to bloom in the spring. That is why they are planted in the fall. Paper whites are the only narcissus that doesn’t need that period. They only take about five to six weeks to bloom from the time they are planted so time them well. If you want to have them for Thanksgiving you need to start them in the middle of October. If you want them for Christmas start them during the first or second week in November.

Forcing Bulbs to Flower

The basics needed for forcing paper whites are:

1. Bulbs
2. Shallow potting dish
3. Gravel or pebbles
4. Water

Directions:

1. When you purchase your bulbs keep them in a dark, dry place until you want to use them.
2. Your shallow dish should be about 2 to 4 inches deep and up to about 12 inches wide and should not have drainage holes.
3. Fill the bottom with the gravel or pebbles. You can purchase pebbles in most craft stores or go to the pet store and get aquarium gravel in a natural color.
4. Carefully pour water into the dish being careful not to dislodge any of the gravel or pebbles until the water comes over top of them.
5. Place the bulbs in the dish with the pointed side up and bottoms against the wet gravel or pebbles.
6. You can put more of the gravel in but leave about ¼ of the tip exposed. Make sure to pack the bulbs tightly together because this will help them to stay upright once the tall stem starts to grow.
7. Only put water in up to the base of the bulbs because that will stimulate growth. If you get the bulb wet it could rot.
8. The bulbs do not need sunlight at this point in time. Once you see them sprout they do. Keep them in a warm, dry area until you see them sprout then place the dish in a warm sunny area.
9. Keep the gravel constantly wet as the water will get sucked up by the bulb but it will also evaporate so check them every day.

Preventing the Forced Flowers from Falling Over

With both methods the flowers will last longer if you get them out of direct sunlight and into diffused light. A problem is the fact that the stems are long and flowers heavy which makes it easy for them to fall over and break the stem. You can prop them up against books or other things and if you are growing in soil in pots you can use a small bamboo stick as a brace. However it has been found that growing paper whites with a water/alcohol solution will stunt their growth and they will not grow tall enough to fall over. They only reach half to 1/3 of their normal height.

You can do this with the flowers you plant in shallow dishes and water by waiting until the roots grow and the shoot coming out of the top gets ½ inch. Pour off all water and replace it with an alcohol solution. You can use vodka, bourbon, whisky, or tequila and even rubbing alcohol but never use alcohol high in sugar content like wine or beer. You need to find out what the proof of the alcohol is. If you are using bourbon and it is 86 proof, the percentage of alcohol is 43%. Now divide the percentage by 5 and subtract one. In our bourbon example this would be 40% (round up or down) divided by 5 = 8 – 1 = 7. You will use 7 parts water to 1 part alcohol. Therefore you would make a solution by combining 1-3/4 cup water to ¼ cup alcohol. This method might even make a great science experiment to prove that alcohol stunts growth.

Having fresh narcissus flowers during the winter will give a boost to the atmosphere with a promise that spring will come soon and you will see massive amounts of bulbs blooming everywhere.