Well into the month of December, the Lake Sunapee region of NH has been enjoying unseasonably warmer temps this year.  Much of the snow that has fallen is already melting and the usually predictable white Christmas was more of a mix of ice, rain and slush than powder.

Whatever the weather outside, paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta) bestow a bit of Noël sous la neige indoors.  If planted at the right time, one can still enjoy the blooms weeks after the Christmas tree is past its prime and other holiday decorations have been taken down.  Their tendency to become top heavy and fall over can make them somewhat of a challenge when forcing the bulbs but this is easily overcome by training them early on:

 

 

Alternatively, William B. Miller, Professor of Horticulture and Director of the Flowerbulb Research Program at Cornell University, has devised a simple and effective method to reduce stem and leaf growth with the use of dilute solutions of alcohol, eliminating the troublesome paperwhite “flop”:

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/miller/bulb/Pickling_your_Paperwhites.pdf

Some prefer the more graceful look of a longer stem but whatever the method used to grow them, it’s worth the extra effort to be able to enjoy the fragrant, star-shaped flowers during the winter months.