Welcome to February!

Here is a bouquet in our living room that, hopefully, will remind you that the spring flowers will be here soon!

Since this fall, we have been forcing the bulbs of paper whites. Paper whites (Narcissus papyraceus ) produce pure white flowers while some varieties have white outer petals and pale yellow center cups. These plants come from the Mediterranean and fill a room with a sweet smell. This odor is quite pleasant and is very different from the rotting flesh smell of Amorphophallus. (See the last three blogs below)

As we cycled through the winter season, a great way to celebrate the approaching spring season has been to watch the blooming of these wonderful plants! Paper whites are bulb plants that can be coaxed into bloom with very little effort. Many bulbs can be forced--grape hyacinths, tulips, daffodils, and crocuses, for example--but paper whites are probably the easiest as they don't require a long cold storage period to root. I have been placing the plant bulbs in a container with only gravel and water and they have bloomed profusely.