Growing Paperwhite Flowers Indoors

My husband likes to joke that I kill all of our houseplants, but I disagree! I did try growing Paperwhite bulbs indoors last year but they never bloomed. I decided to give it another try this year and I’m glad I did. I bought a box of 6 Paperwhite flowers at a home center (you can find a box of 12 here*).

My box came with peat moss, but you can grow them without it. If you are using the peat moss, you add water to it before placing the bulbs on top of it. You want the peat moss overly soaked. Then you want to keep it that way while they are growing.

 

I planted four of mine in this vintage coffee can I found at a flea market last summer (I knew that would come in handy one day). You can find a similar one here for only $2!

I am fortunate that my kitchen faces south, so it gets tons of sun all day. I put my planter in a cloche, as a makeshift greenhouse or terranium hoping that would help them grow.

I did open it up a few hours each day so they could get air as well. I did this until they had sprouted enough so that I couldn’t fit the lid over them any more.

 

Then I kept them watered and waited for them to bloom. It took about four weeks, but they have finally bloomed. The petals look so pretty up close, they are glittery.

With the other two bulbs that I couldn’t fit in my vintage can, I put in mason jars. I think the glass on these also sort of acted as a green house, because the one I kept in the kitchen sprouted like crazy.

As I mentioned, you can grow these without peat moss by placing pebbles or rocks in a container and adding water before placing the bulbs in. They usually take about 3-4 weeks to bloom. They are also supposed to be toxic to cats, which I didn’t know when I started growing these. Luckily, my cats who do like to eat my houseplants had no interest in these. You can also save the Paperwhite bulbs because they will rebloom. You can find more info on how to do that here.

Now that I blogged about it, I have proof when my husand says I kill all the indoor plants!

 

That Christmas cactus on the left is another one I have managed to keep alive for years. I’m ready for Spring to get here already, so I put together this Spring-like vignette on my sideboard with the plants and this wreath for some greenery until it does.

 

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