people with black thumbs and green thumbs unite. you can all do this. i will never forget one of the first times i went to my friend lindsay's house. it was for a christmas play date when my daughter was a little older than a year and a half. i actually think i showed up a day early accidentally. remember that lindsay?! i showed up all dressed up, got my baby girl all dressed up early in the morning and lindsay answered the door in her pajamas. i remember thinking to myself, she better get in the shower because the rest of her guests are going to be here soon. ha! i'm very unorganized and do things like this on a regular basis. thankfully i have lindsay to keep me on track, like reminding me that our kids had a piano recital last sunday... the thursday before. oops!
anyhow, lindsay's house was filled with paperwhites the day of the actual play date. they were everywhere. they were beautiful. i thought, this girl and i are going to have a lot in common. she likes to garden just like me!
lindsay doesn't really like to garden. i mean, not like i do anyway. she can grow beautiful house plants and can appreciate a beautiful garden but she doesn't have the itch to get her hands dirty and to work in the yard like i do, but she taught me how to grow paperwhites.
in the past few years since that play date i have grown paperwhites for christmas and this year is no exception. they smell good and they are really cheap decorations. every year i try growing them differently. and this year i'm trying two different versions. these grow so quickly it's literally like you are watching them grow. so far the ones that are growing the quickest are growing in containers that DO NOT have a hole in the bottom, filled completely with pea gravel. pea gravel is ugly, but it is cheap and as you get closer to putting these out for decorations you can top the pea gravel with moss or decorative rock.
you want to almost cover the bulbs with the rocks but you need to leave a little bit sticking out so they can bloom.
here we are, week two. the two white containers are doing better than the one to the right. the one to the right is filled with a combination of potting soil and pea gravel.
this is the first year i am trying to grow these outside. they do really well indoors though. i also have planted them early because i'm going to be selling them at a craft fair the first weekend in december (more on that soon). i will plant these in waves so i can have them blooming throughout the month of december.
you can grow these in any type of container, just needs to be pretty deep as the roots of the bulbs get pretty long. the ones i'm going to sell are in the cheapest, ugly, plastic containers because i plan on wrapping them in burlap and tying a jute or maybe a tartan bow around them.
you need to keep the water level pretty high on these also. you should be able to see the water at the base of the bulbs. i'll take pictures along the way so you can watch their progress. this is also really fun for kids because they grow so fast and they love to check their progress. if you have any questions please feel free to email me and i'll do my best to answer. this a great way to turn your black thumb green and a nice way to bring the outdoors in.
happy planting,
amber
