Planning for Christmas and Forcing Paperwhites

Hello everyone! Happy Friday to you. I hope you all had a good week.

The weather here has been a little chilly and I've started to think more and more about the upcoming holidays, especially Christmas. I always look forward to this time of year...the hustle and bustle of getting out the holiday decorations and trying to give a cozy, festive feel to my house.

As I've done in the past, I'm forcing paperwhites again. I always like my decorating to have kind of an earthy, natural look and, of course, I can never pass up an opportunity to have fresh flowers.

Last week, I stopped at my favorite gardening shop and bought a few bulbs. I always like to use a variety of containers...some big, some small, since I never know quite what the decorating plan is until I'm arranging things around the house. You know what I mean?  

A lot of you have probably forced paperwhites before...there's not really much to it. The bulbs can be planted in either pebbles or soil. I prefer soil. I've just had the best luck with that in the past and, I figure, it's always easy to layer moss or pebbles over the top of the dirt if you decide you want a different look later. 

Then you just nestle the base of the bulbs into the dirt, give them a little water and put the container into a cool, dark room for a few days so that the roots can develop.

Once the shoots are a few inches long, I usually start added a smidge of rubbing alcohol to the water. This helps to stunt the plants' growth and keeps them from getting too leggy.

And that's pretty much it.

For whatever reason, I always tend to think of my holiday decorating in terms of color themes. Do you do that too? Some years I'll have red as an accent or green and then other times I'll try to keep everything really neutral...that's what I did last year.

This time around, I think I might go with neutrals and little bits of green. That's why I choose those rustic pots with green and white accents for my paperwhites. I'm trying to think of some other things I could incorporate.

Oh, one other thing I've bought for this year's decorating is a preserved boxwood wreath. I bought a fresh one last year and for some reason I thought it smelled like urine...ugh, gross. I ended up hanging it outside. Thankfully, the one I just got seems fine though :)

Well, that's all for today.

Have a good weekend!

Tricia

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