First Year Blooming

Over the years I have seen great articles on planting swaths of narcissus bulbs to naturalize in your lawn. It was a project I had always wanted to do. In the February 2019 issue of Better Homes & Gardens, a very informative and enticing article, motivated me to buy 200 Heavenly All-White Mixture narcissus bulbs in the fall, refrigerate them for weeks, create my design, and plant them.

My garden is always one big experiment after another, some ideas work great, some don’t. I thought a lawn filled with happy narcissus was more likely to thrive back East rather than in Southern California. The very pleasant folks at Van Engelen assured me if I refrigerated my bulbs first for 8 to 10 weeks, the bulbs would bloom beautifully in a Southern California garden, and would bloom every year thereafter. There are varieties that will do better than others, so always ask, and do your homework. Some bulb companies feature a “Warmer Climate Bulb” category to assist you. I was so pleasantly surprised at the beauty and success I had in planting the first bulbs, that I ordered another 100 bulbs, and have them in the refrigerator now. Other bulb websites to shop at are Brent and Becky’s Bulbs , Easy To Grow Bulbs (located in Southern California) and Floret Flowers.

Garden Tip: Shop bulb catalogs and websites over the summer. Make your wish list. Order early, as bulbs often sell out. Refrigerate your bulbs if necessary for suggested time. Plant in fall when weather cools, and temperatures drop below 55 degrees. Patiently wait for spring. Et voilà!

Do Your Homework

Narcissus bulbs are a great addition to your garden, once you plant them, they give back every year with their effortless blooming, and symbolically announce the beginning of spring. Not only are they striking in mass, they naturally deter gophers, and so are functional as well in your garden. I list here a few additional posts about narcissus bulbs from my blog archive for your reference.

Do you have narcissus bulbs in your garden?

Narcissus Bulbs Naturally Deter Gophers

Go Green With Gophers

How to Grow Perfect Paperwhites

I can't say enough about the effectiveness of combating gophers "the green way" with bulbs. I owe my good friends at Easy To Grow Bulbs for the "aha" moment, when I learned that planting any type of jonquil, paperwhite, or daffodil bulb, in a somewhat strategic mass planting in your yard and garden will effectively deter gophers in a very green and very beautiful organic way. It is a gopher solution that is simple and appealing.

Last year I wrote about the benefit of planting bulbs to deter gophers around my chicken coop in the related VGG post, Narcissus Bulbs Naturally Deter Gophers, and how effective it has been. I also planted bulbs around the perimeter of my potager to deter any gopher invasion, as shown in the photo above.

Jonquil, paperwhite, and daffodil bulbs once planted in the ground send out a year-round message to deter gophers, rabbits, and even deer in their immediate area. These particular bulbs send out a "toxic fragrance" or odor that animals sense even without biting into a bulb. However, if these bulbs are bitten into, they have the capability to burn a gopher's tender mouth and cheek tissues. The result is a natural tendency for gophers to move away from the area where you have planted your bulbs, hence limiting their food source, and population. It takes a little while, but it really works.

I love this green solution because it is humane to wildlife, your bulbs look fantastic when blooming, and they bloom year after year. Your initial investment is your time involved planting your bulbs, and a generous amount of bulbs planted in your gopher problem-related area. Plant your bulbs one after another in a line 3"-4" apart, or planted randomly throughout a flower bed amongst your other plants. Once your bulbs bloom, cut them back after they are spent and dried. You won't see them for the rest of the year, yet they are sending out their gopher-deterrent message year-round.

Please share how you combat gophers in your garden and yard. Do you have any other green solutions for gophers?

For perfect paperwhites for the holidays, I asked the friendly bulb specialist, Easy To Grow Bulbs, for their expert advice. Easy To Grow Bulbs is a mail-order company which specializes in "bigger, better bulbs for warm weather gardens." I thank Kathleen McCarthy, Head of Customer Service, for graciously writing and navigating us through "How To Grow Perfect Paperwhites."

For those familiar with growing paperwhites, the benefits enjoyed are many. Fresh, fragrant flowers are easily and quickly grown indoors for the holidays and to brighten the grey days of winter. In mild winter climates they make terrific additions to the garden bed after the blooms are finished -- returning to bloom every spring, deterring gophers and deer all the while. Truly a wonderful addition to holiday décor, gift-giving, and as an early breath of spring.

Paperwhites have in the past, been just a bit short of a perfect experience, however. While many love the fragrance they offer, some find it entirely too much of a good thing, and long for varieties with a lighter scent. And just about everyone has had their paperwhites grow too tall with the stems and leaves flopping over. Whether this has happened occasionally, or every time you have grown paperwhites, you probably found creative ways to support them, wishing they would just stay straight and strong on their own. Now there are solutions to both of these issues – paperwhites can now be perfect.

For classic paperwhites with a less potent fragrance, I suggest the Inball paperwhite variety, http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=169 With large, plentiful white blooms, Inball has the same musky fragrance as a typical paperwhite – just a lot less of it. If you think of a regular paperwhite as having a “gallon of fragrance,” Inball has just about a “cup” of that same fragrance.

Another less potent fragrance variety is the Wintersun paperwhite. It has a much lighter scent that must be appreciated with your face quite close to the blooms. With its pale yellow petals and prominent golden cups it is perfect for both Thanksgiving feasts, and as indoor sunshine for the long, grey days of January and February. Plant paperwhites at 2-3 week intervals to enjoy months of flowers and fragrance!

Tired of paperwhites flopping over just as they are ready to bloom. The reason – and solution -- is simple. Paperwhites prefer to grow in full, day-long sunshine. So, when grown indoors in dim light, they stretch, reaching for the sun they know must be up there somewhere. Where they stretch, they get weak, where they get weak, they flop over. No need to build a solarium to enjoy these beauties at their best, though!

Discovered by a professor of horticulture at Cornell University, the addition of a small amount of alcohol to their water keeps them straight and strong. It simply makes them unable to stretch, so they remain short and upright. Whether using hard liquor or rubbing alcohol, be sure to read the linked article to determine the proper dilution rate. Mix up a quart or so to use for weeks as your paperwhites need their water replenished. As an added benefit, the alcohol keeps the water algae free and crystal clear – an important consideration when growing paperwhites in pebbles and water. For more details on why paperwhites flop and how to stop it, go to https://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=116. This really works!

Having growing, blooming plants in your home is a joy, and easy to achieve with paperwhites. Have fun, be creative; and regardless of the weather outside, enjoy a breath of spring!

For more information on paperwhites and warm weather bulbs, visit Easy To Grow Bulbs.