paperwhites

as autumn marches towards its winter self my garden closes up for a season. in order to have something blooming and growing during this time i plant paperwhite narcissus indoors. with their heady scent and almost visible daily growth they are quite easy to force into blooming. you dont even need soil.

gravel of some sort will do; place the bulb root side down in the bed of gravel and fill with water to just the bottom of the bulb. within a day or two the roots will begin to snake their way down and the flower stems will begin to grow up. they only bloom once so once they are done they are done.

narcissus come probably from a greek word meaning 'sleep' or 'numbness'