Old and New Holiday Plant Memories

Plant geeks and new gardeners enjoy the simple joys of forcing paperwhites – it would. be a sad winter season if I ever skipped planting a few dozen.

I found this ‘Spagtacular’ watercolor of Spag’s on the site of a local artist (a neighbor, really just a few a streets away from me!). Michael Wackell, Sr. suffers from Parkinson’s Disease diagnosed in 2012 yet he is able to paint these amazing watercolors After chatting with his daughter at  Southpaw Watercolors. I was so impressed with his work I just had to share some of it here. This piece really captured the essence of the store in the 1970’s  – check out that car! I nice gift this season might include a donation to the Michael J. Fox Foundation which is dedicated to finding a cure.

Spag’s, a local store near me on bnusy route 9 in Shrewsbury, MA is gone now, but many residents have fond memories of buying bulbs and Holiday gifts there. This image is from the 1950’s.

Spags carried most everything and anything, from fishing equipment to sporting goods, furniture to carpets, cans of pistachios (stacked to the ceiling) to board games and toys. Boxes of clothespins, bins of shampoo bottles and of course, flower bulbs. The store is gone now and a new Whole Foods is opening this January, but Whole Foods was nice enough to pay homage to this local landmark with a special sign outside of their new, modern building. A nice touch.

Potted paperwhite narcissus planted in soil and then top-dressed with sheet moss on a bench in my greenhouse. These will root in the cool environment and grow short and stocky stems with the bright light. They will be brought into the house near Christmas Even to brighten window sills and add Holiday cheer to the rooms.

While the genus Narcissus continues to be a muddled group (taxonomically speaking), most agree on where the paperwhite come from. The American Daffodil Society whose website admits that while there is there is disagreement, about the total number of species within Narcissus (somewhere between 40 and 200)  there are other organizations such as the venerable  Pacific Bulb Society who admit that there may be between 26 to 80 species. Factor in that there are currently more than 25,000 named cultivars and hybrids out there,  things can get quite confusing.
Paperwhites are

I like to research a bit with common plants, and given the topic of paperwhites, I have been curious about where they actually come from, or where they grow wild. Narcissus papyraceus is the accepted and preferred botanical name, yet few of us would use it unless we had some bulbs or seed from a wild population – still,  it’s helpful to know names are not proper anymore.

N. tazetta var. papyraceus
N. tazetta subsp. papyraceus
N. linnaeanus subsp. papyraceus,

Each of these is now taxonomically incorrect. Use this post to correct friends and family at a Holiday party. They will be impressed, and then, move on.

You are welcome.

Paperwhite fragrance isn’t for everyone, but it is a scent which I would miss every winter.

This week I bought some paperwhite bulbs from Home Depot, and the package had “Narcissus grandiflora” on the front, along with ‘Ziva’.

Sadly this is a 19th century name which hasn’t been used for over 100 years, but not unusual in a world where a Google search often acts as a copywriters first choice.

Narcissus collectors (yes, there are some) know that there are obscure subspecies associated within the N. papyraceus clan, all are wild populations of a sort-of paperwhite narcissus. These include

N. papyraceus ssp. pachybolbus
N. papyraceus ssp. panizzianus
N. papyraceus ssp.  papyraceus
N. papyraceus polyanthos

Retired forever are the 19th century names for the Paperwhite, this includes Polyanthus Narcissus, Grandiflora Narcissus and Narcissus Paperwhite.

don’t you love the term ‘Gian Odorous’ narcissus? 19th-century bulb catalogs often featured many different types and selections of easy-to-force bulbs like paperwhites. They are hardly new to us.

We in the 21st century have the luxury of choosing from a dozen or so named crosses and selections – clones of choice varieties, some tall, some ridiculously fragratm, some stinky, and some with little to no scent if you are weird.

These include the Dutch propagated selections we most commonly see today like:
N. papyraceus ‘Ziva’ and
N. papyraceus ‘Inbal’,
and a long list of other names I don’t feel like looking up here – if a variety with a name appears in a bulb catalog today, it is undoubtedly a choice one, just buy based upon your taste.

As for the related species and selections which can be grown (forced-in-gravel) are a few other types, including all yellow, ivory and some bicolored forms  like ‘Chinese Sacred Lily’, not really a lily of course, but essentially a tazetta-group narcissus which can be forced indoors without vernalization (a cold period).
I’ve seen some bloggers and writers refer to these as ‘tropical’ narcissus, but they are simply mediterranean types which are tender. Some of these have a longer cultural tail with humans, especially in Asia. These include some forms here, which bloom a little later in the winter season and take longer to get going in a pot. All sweetly fragrant, they include:

N. tazetta “Grand Soleil d’Or’
N. tazetta “Flore Plenus”
N. tazetta “Chinese Sacred Lily”
N. tasetta “odoratus”

There are plenty of other N. tazetta subspecies which are cold hardy and good choices for northern gardeners outdoors, but I’ll spare you. They are easy to track down, just look for bulbs classified as tazetta types.

Every plant has roots to a wild population.   N. papyraceus comes from Greece and north Africa (Morocco) and places like Croatia. Populations have naturalized in Italy, Australia and even in the southern US.

I feel like a slug not posting for an entire month now, perhaps the longest absence in the history of this blog but my book is taking priority along with the work on our kitchen remodel (almost done!!!). Thanks for being patient. It’s a busy time of year for many of us, so maybe I am being kind in giving you less to read!