I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy when I grow my lovely Paperwhites in the winter, watching them flop over or needing to spend the time to tie them up to support them. So, I decided to try an experiment: growing them in an alcohol and water mixture (7 parts water to 1 part Vodka or 13 parts water to 1 part 70% rubbing alcohol) to stunt the growth of the stems so they stand upright. You can read more about my experiment in this post.

I was completely amazed by the results.

The results:

I was completely amazed by the results. As seen above, there is a dramatic difference in the height of the flowers. I grew the ones without the mixture (on the left) in a very tall “vase” as another way to avoid the issue of stems flopping over, and they are 26” high. The bulbs that had the alcohol mixture are in the much shorter vase (on the right) and are 10” high. You can see for yourself that the ones given the mixture are less than half the height.

While the alcohol mixture did prevent the Paperwhites from flopping over, I also noticed that those flowers did not last as long. The alcohol stunted their growth, but it also stunted their blooming time by three weeks, if not more, compared to the other flowers.

My final thoughts on vodka & Paperwhites:

If you have a tall vase or don’t mind tying up your Paperwhites, I would opt out of using the alcohol mixture, as I found it quite disappointing to see the flowers die off so quickly. In this case, I think the standard method of using only water is my preference, so I can enjoy the flowers much longer, including that amazing aroma that Paperwhites exude.

Share with me below: What your favorite bulb is to grow inside during the winter?

FEATURED FLOWER
Paperwhite, Narcissa. Photographed in my studio.

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