Forcing Paperwhites and Amaryllis Indoors

With just six weeks until Christmas, it's time to plant Paperwhites and Amaryllis so they'll be blooming during the holidays. It generally takes 4 - 6 weeks for them to bloom once planted.

Forcing bulbs to bloom indoors is a fun and easy project. Just follow these steps:

• Choose a shallow container a small glass vase, bowl or bulb vase. In this case you want a container that doesn't have a hole in it and will hold water.
• Fill the container three-quarters full of gravel or  polished stones. Small to medium sized gravel or stone works best. You can also use tumbled glass or marbles.
• Place the bulbs on the gravel and then add more gravel around them to hold them in place.
• Fill your container with water just to the bottom of the bulb. Do not submerge the bulb totally in water.
• Place in a well-lit room and keep the water level just below the bulb.
• As the leaves appear and bloom stalks emerge they can have a tendency to become heavy and fall over. To keep the stalks from falling over, when the bud has emerged, replace water with a mixture of half water and half drinking alcohol (gin or vodka work best).