Can paperwhites be kept year to year?

I've been growing on my amaryllis from one year to the next for a couple of years now, planting them out in the garden during frost-free weather, then bringing them back inside for the fall/winter.

I've been wondering....

Is is possible to do something similar with paperwhites? I generally buy they, pot them up, then toss them when they are done blooming. But this year I have some that I particularly liked, so I'd be willing to grow them on if I knew how to go about it.

I'd love input on this from others in nontropical zones.... If you post that you just plant paperwhites outside when they're done blooming, and then they come back each year and put on a spectacular show in your zone 9 garden, well, you're just going to give me zone envy, LOL!

Thanks!!

I tried to do that one year, seemed to be working, but didn't. The 'experts' say nay. I think a lot of paperwhites are actually exported to here from Israel.

The only luck I had was planting them in the ground in the Spring after they bloomed inside and having them come up and flower the following spring.

THIS WAS WHEN I LIVED IN NC; I planted the bulbs in a microclimate (~Zone 7b). I do not know the hardiness, but you should be able to google and see if it will work where you live.

Rox, they sure won't be hardy for me, but my MIL in NC was also asking about this.... She lives in Winston-Salem, and I'm thinking she may as well give this a try in some sheltered corner of the yard... Did they bloom early enough for you that, like daffs, they could go in a spot that has sun before the trees leaf out?

Thanks!

The following year they bloomed slightly before most of my other daffodils, so when they come up in the spring you might have to protect them a few nights if it is going to freeze.
Just cover them with a black gardening pot and cover with a towel. Uncover them in the morning so they don't get heat exhaustion.

ROX

A few years ago I helped a friend pot up a lot of spring bulbs that he bought too late to plant out.
I kept one pot of Paperwhites as forcers. They bloomed a few months later indoors, I kept them in a sunny window until I could put them into the garden.
When planting I didn't separate the bulbs or disturb the root ball, just planted it as a clump. They are still there blooming each spring.
This may not be the same Paperwhites you have in mind but they were clearly labeled. Fragrant white flowers.
Andy P

Sounds like there are Paperwhites, and then there are Paperwhites, LOL.

Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I may as well pop them in a corner and plant them out in spring... I'll tell my MIL to do the same down in NC... we'll report back!

I also read they were hardy to z7 so LMK if someone wld like about 6 spent bulbs this spring. I plan on pitching them if no one wants them. Tooooo cold here.

They bloom here in 7b in january and are fairly reliable, a bad winter will take em out, my mother raises them in 6b started 5 years ago and they are going strong, early feb for her.

Wonder if we could do like we do with some amaryllis...after they bloom inside, treat them like a houseplant until it's warm enough to put them outside in the ground, then about September, dig them up, let them dry, then rest for a couple of months, then force again?

That's what I was wondering... but the foliage on mine started looking really sad just a few weeks after they'd bloomed... Now they are either dead or dormant, and I'm not sure what (if anything) to try with them.

But amaryllis does that, too. I say once the foliage has died down, stop watering, put in a cool, darkish place and then plant in the ground for summer.

kbaumie has it just the way I do, if they have been forced you probably won't get bloom for a few years and if ya did it in water they are unlikely to survive, but worth trying. I have the best luck planting them unforced in the fall like other daffs.

I think we'll have different results though, being in different zones the way we are.

I should have checked your zone, sorry, doubtful that cold, if you planted them in a sheltered location and mulched well, maybe, The ones i9n 6b are out in an old chestnut grove and pretty exposed, plus it is a lot warmer thajn it used to be, i can remember when i had ice skates and used em in 6b, back then i got some that had been forced to live for a few years but they never bloomed again. better than throwing them out anyway.

Sorry I wasn't more clear. I meant plant them for summer, then dig them up in September, let them dry and rest for a couple of months and force INSIDE. I know they wouldn't last outside all winter. Well, maybe, but probably not, although some narcissus do well here, naturalized.

I don't know if that would work or not, with heavy fert maybe, give it a whirl and see, give em a couple of years before pitching as most daffs take that long to recover from being forced, but ten they aren't all that expensive, may not be worth the trouble

Yeah, unless I get a cultivar I love and don't think I"ll be able to find again, I'm leaning toward "not worth the trouble." I think my growing amaryllis collection will give me enough to do in that department!

Now that is a vice, it will eat ya out of house and home and in my case the dinning room, no room to eat anymore but they are lovely when there is NOTHING outside, I'm going to plant some outside this year and see what happens, I need to pot up some babies and there just isn't any more room, already got a set of shelves for those short enought to stay on them, got a decent number of ones that i don't much like, " here ya go, you can make em bloom again, why do't you take it" and some mis labeled when i bought em.

LOL... I got some mislabeled ones that I think turned out to be 'Apple Blossom'... pretty enough, but I don't need more than one! I'll grow 'em on over the summer & give them away next fall.

If you like big blooms, appleblossom is the biggest i've ever seen, one year, and I'd been spoiling my amaryllises for several years in a row, in the pot appleblossom was up to my chest I;m 5'9" and with blossoms nearly a foot across not quite 11 inches, so ya might want 2, lol. I'm keeping 1 inside i think i have 4 but there are a couple that haven't bloomes for a couple of years and the tags are faded to illegibility.

I don't think that paperwhites will bloom a second year, even though they will remain green if you plant them outside after indoor forcing.

I threw some out in the yard without planting last year, thinking that the squirrels would eat them, and they remained green just from sunshine and rain for months even though they were not planted. I was quite surprised.

I think 'Double Record' was my biggest Amaryllis bloom this year.... as big as 'Apple Blossom', and fully double to boot, white & red bloom with lovely red picotee edges! Not to worry, I'll keep an 'Apple Blossom' or two around!

(edited to get the name right.)

This message was edited Mar 17, 2006 6:14 PM

they may not up in Virginia, but here after 3 years and sometimes 2 they can, doesn't mean they will, but they can

Yeah flower Record is a nice one quite lovely, my fav is wedding dance, she doesn't get as large as some but she is so graceful, actually had one in bloom for the daughter of some friend's wedding breakfast, they put it on the landing on the stairs and it was just perfect there, never seen one better.