It was just a small experiment and seemed to be going okay. Then, boom!!To catch you up - Paperwhites (a relative of the daffodil) are a winter-season favorite for indoor blooming. Their big problem is that they grow very tall and often fall over. A listener (and a number of reputable source on the internet) said that adding alcohol to the water of the bulb would keep the leaves shorter. So I tried it.
My bulb in water grew to be two feet high and fell over - so far - normal. The leaves of the bulb growing in a 5% ethyl alcohol solution grew slower. It began to set flowers lower. So far; so good.
Then it just died. It could be:
- just a bad bulb
- I should have used isopropyl alcohol
- the alcohol method doesn't always work
I'm a bit discouraged, but I might try this again next time paperwhites are avilable (usually September/October). I need more data before drawing conclusions.
Anyone with their own method of growing paperwhites indoors is welcome to share.
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