How to force bulbs for flowers indoors this winter.

A bowl of paperwhites on the table at Christmas fills a room with scent, and costs a fraction of a florist’s arrangement. A few weeks later, as the decorations come down and January settles in, a pot of hyacinths takes over.

That is the plan in short: paperwhites for Christmas, hyacinths for the new year. Paperwhites need no cold and flower about six weeks after planting, so you can time them to the day. Hyacinths need a long cold spell first, and the ones we sell are ordinary garden bulbs rather than the heat-treated “prepared” kind. They will flower indoors weeks ahead of the garden, but in January and February rather than on Christmas Day. Plant both now and you have flowers indoors from December to March.

When to plant

For paperwhites on Christmas Day, plant between 10 and 15 November. For hyacinths, plant this month: every week you wait in October is a week later they flower. Remember to place your order early, as stock can be limited.

Bulb	Plant	Cold, dark spell	Bring into the light	Flowers
Paperwhites	Late October	None	Straight away	Early to mid December
Paperwhites	10–15 November	None	Straight away	Christmas
Paperwhites	Early December	None	Straight away	Mid January
Hyacinths	Early to mid October	10–12 weeks	Late December to early January, when shoots are about 5cm (2in)	Late January to February

Paperwhites vary a little with warmth: a hot sitting room brings them on in four weeks, a cool porch can take eight. Planting a bowl every fortnight from late October gives you a run of flowers right through the winter, and a spare bowl or two to give away.

How to grow paperwhites indoors

Paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus) are the easiest bulbs you will ever grow. They come from the Mediterranean, need no winter chill, and will flower in a bowl of gravel and water with no compost at all.

1. Choose a bowl at least 10cm (4in) deep, with no drainage hole.
2. Put in 5cm (2in) of gravel, pebbles or glass beads.
3. Stand the bulbs on top, pointed end up, close enough to touch. A 20cm (8in) bowl takes about ten.
4. Add more gravel around them so only the top third of each bulb shows.
5. Pour in water until it just reaches the base of the bulbs, not above. Bulbs sitting in water rot.
6. Stand the bowl somewhere bright and cool. Top up the water every few days.

If you’d rather use compost, plant them the same way in any bulb bowl and keep the compost just moist.

The one fault of paperwhites is that they grow tall and flop, especially in a warm, dim room. Give them the brightest, coolest spot you have and turn the bowl every day or two. Or try the trick worked out by Professor William Miller at Cornell University: once the shoots are about 5cm (2in) tall, swap the water for a mix of one part gin or vodka to seven parts water. The alcohol stunts the stems by about a third without harming the flowers. Don’t use wine or beer, whose sugars do the bulbs no good.

The scent is strong, musky and sweet. Most people love it; a few find it too much in a small room, so a hallway or a big kitchen may suit better than the bedroom.

How to grow hyacinths indoors

Hyacinths ask for more patience. They must have a spell of cold and dark to make roots before they will flower; skip it and you get a stunted flower jammed between the leaves. Wear gloves when you handle the bulbs, as the skins can make your hands itch.

In a bowl

1. Half-fill a bulb bowl with bulb fibre or multi-purpose compost.
2. Set the bulbs on it, close but not touching, so their noses sit level with the rim. Three fill a 15cm (6in) pot.
3. Fill around them with compost, leaving the tips showing, and water lightly.
4. Put the bowl somewhere cold and dark, below about 9°C (48°F): an unheated garage, a shed, or outside under a black bin bag or upturned box. Check every few weeks that the compost hasn’t dried out.
5. After 10–12 weeks, when the shoots are about 5cm (2in) tall and the flower bud has cleared the neck of the bulb, bring the bowl into a cool room for a few days, then into the warmth and light.
6. Flowers follow in three to four weeks.

In a glass

A hyacinth glass holds the bulb in its cup with the roots in water below, so you can watch them grow. Fill it until the water sits just below the base of the bulb; it should never touch. Keep it cold and dark, as above, until the roots fill the glass and the shoot is about 5cm (2in) tall, then bring it into the light. Top up the water as needed.

For Christmas colours, Delft Blue, Jan Bos (red) and Carnegie (white) do well together, or use one variety per bowl for the strongest effect. Delft Blue has the least cloying scent of the lot, which matters in a warm room.

Bulbs as Christmas presents

A bowl of bulbs you planted yourself makes a better present than most things bought in December, and it carries on giving after the wrapping paper has gone out with the recycling.

There are two ways to time it:

• Flowering on the day. Plant paperwhites in a pretty bowl in mid November. By Christmas the buds will be fat and just opening, ready to hand over. Add a label with one instruction: keep it bright and cool, and top up the water.
• Something to look forward to. Plant a bowl or a glass of hyacinths now, and give it at Christmas with shoots just showing. The person you give it to gets to watch the flowers come in January, when there’s little else to look forward to. Tell them to keep it in a cool, bright room.

For a gardener, a bag of bulbs and a hyacinth glass is a good present at any stage, even unplanted; most will enjoy the doing as much as the flowers. Old jam jars, teacups and enamel bowls all make good containers for paperwhites, since they need no drainage.

After flowering

Paperwhites grown in water have spent everything they had, so put them on the compost heap once the flowers fade and buy fresh next autumn.

Hyacinths are worth keeping. Cut off the flower stem, keep watering and give them a liquid feed every couple of weeks until the leaves start to yellow. Then plant them out in the garden in spring, about 15cm (6in) deep. They’ll sulk for a year, then flower every spring after, with looser, more natural spikes than the dense first-year flowers.

Questions people ask

Can I get hyacinths to flower for Christmas? Only with prepared bulbs, which have been heat-treated to make them think winter has already passed, and these must be planted by late September. Ordinary hyacinths, like ours, flower indoors from late January. For Christmas Day, grow paperwhites.

Why are my hyacinths flowering with no stem? They were brought into the warmth too soon, before the roots and shoot had grown enough. Next time, wait until the shoot is about 5cm (2in) tall.

Can I force other bulbs indoors? Yes. Dwarf daffodils such as Tête-à-Tête, grape hyacinths and crocus all force well. Treat them like hyacinths, with a cold, dark spell first, and expect flowers from February.

Are paperwhites poisonous? Yes, like all daffodils, if eaten. Keep bowls out of reach of pets and small children, and don’t let cats drink the water.

Order your bulbs

• Paperwhite bulbs
• Hyacinth bulbs
• How to grow bulbs in pots