Indoor Bulb Gardens and a Paperwhite Cocktail (for your plants 😱)
HOW TO! Paperwhites and Amaryllis to keep you company all winter long. The perfect gifts and exotic company for winter.
Houseplants are nice things to have during winter. I zapped a lot of the plants in the nook with the frost when I was at my friend Tara’s Thanksgiving . One must keep on top of the weather! But do not fret. Many are still alive and besides, I figure I can replace one plant each week until it’s top notch again. Shit happens 😅. In addition to houseplants, here is a perfect how to- to copy including bulb amounts below for amaryllis and paperwhites that bloom to keep you company all winter long. Feel free to tailor the amounts to what you want to spend and your own budget. These are such mood boosters, exotic luxuries and fantastic gifts.
Just ordering a few dozen paperwhites and some amaryllis alone make the house feel so alive in winter! Especially when they start to bloom. However, watching the growth and having anticipation is just as fun.
Last year ^
My mom went wild this year making dozens of paperwhite pots. As you can see, any vessel will do. Any terracotta pots. Vases. Whatever you’ve got. For starters, just order a ton of paper whites and some amaryllis and start sticking them in whatever you can find. These really do also make amazing gifts if you don’t mind to part with the vessels.
Plant with dirt and leave this much of the bulb exposed at the top:
Cover with moss. Details on that below.
Non- dirt instructions:
Ok so you can do stone like river rock, pebbles, or marbles in a non draining container ... can be anything. Then fill it just to where base of bulbs are getting water. Then after 10 days and you have lots of roots you switch to the cocktail below.
For now, the paperwhites are watered with water ! But when they get lots of roots, it is important to give them this cocktail ! It keeps the stems from getting way too tall and falling over.
Paperwhite Cocktail
1/2 cup alcohol
3 1/2 cups water
Combine cheap vodka and water in a pitcher to keep in the fridge for easy watering. There is no need for Grey Goose here. The rot gut vodka will be perfect.
There are many ways to do this. Some people do these in pebbles / river rock as I described above. Some people do them in a bowl of marbles. I’ve done both in the past. But Mom decided to just plant them in dirt this year. You can see that in some these pictures that she planted the paperwhites in nursery pots. That way they can be put in anything you want and add the moss on top to cover ! All in all, I think to do this even this extravagantly to have them absolutely everywhere. I feel like she spent about 200 dollars, but i’ll work out the full cost below. If you want to keep them blooming all winter long, plant them in succession by planting new paperwhites every two or three weeks all winter.
You can see here how I have done them in past years:
Here I did it with some daffodils too:
More of this years planting :
the goods:
Copy these amounts below if you like or make a smaller order of your own to your liking:
Paper white bulbs:
You can still get 10 bulbs here for 17.90 if you only want a few. Here is the link.
Amaryllis bulbs :
Browse the amaryllis still in stock here from Dutch Grown.
Total project cost to have bulbs everywhere:
219.44
Plus Moss. This is different than the moss my Mom used, so any moss will do. I just like this one:
66.70 ( But this is for a huge 5 lb box)
Otherwise, top with any moss you fancy.
Here are some other sources:
Some very pretty Amaryllis to choose from- from Eden Brothers.
Other bits and tips:
And if you need an Amaryllis fast and budding Three Toads Farm has them budded up here. These can be fun things to play around with in the coming months.
Happy planting !
Alex