Last updated on December 19th, 2011
I FORCE OODLES OF FLOWERING BULBS IN WINTER. Their scented bouquets lift my spirits, and their dazzling colors make my house look happy. A super-fast bulb for indoor bloom is Narcissus ‘Winter Sun.’ Back in November, I sang the praises of this tropical tourist after it unleashed a torrent of heavenly-scented, yellow and white blossoms in my music room window. Winter Sun will bloom for you, too. And that’s why I’ve purchased 3 packages of the bulbs to give away to 3 readers in this month’s random drawing.
Placed in a bright window, ‘Winter Sun’ will bloom for you in just 3-4 weeks’ time. You can plant the bulbs in a pot of soil, or in a bowl of pebbles and water. I planted mine in pebbles and water. After roots formed for a week, I poured the water off and replaced it with 5 parts water to 1 part gin. The addition of gin (or any alcohol which is 40-proof) keeps the flowering stalks from growing overly tall. Yet the flowers grow just as big and fragrant as usual.
To enter this giveaway, do these three simple things:
First, sign up for my weekly newsletter (if you haven’t already).
Next, leave a comment below, telling me how you’re spending the holidays. Or, just mention your favorite bulbs.
Finally, click the Facebook “like” button below.
Enter soon! This random drawing expires at 11:59 PM on Friday, December 23, 2011. As always, I’ll use Random.org to select the winners. The three winners will be notified by email.
Don’t miss anything at A Garden for the House…sign up for Kevin’s weekly newsletter.
Related Posts:
Pickled Paper-Whites
Photo Gallery: Dutch Bulbs for Winter Windows
Forcing Hyacinths in Bulb Vases
Kim says
We are spending the holidays at our home on the coast of Maine, hoping for snow! For us the holidays mean: special meals; great books, music, movies, and wine, and time with those we cherish. We love living down a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere!
Kim L says
I like yellow tulips the best! but all the spring flowers make happy. My son is home from college. My Mom will come for Christmas and we will have a nice family breakfast after opening gifts. A quiet day to enjoy my family.
Katherine says
Spending the holidays at home with family and friends, hoping for some gardening books or tools for Christmas!
Pam Smith says
This will be my first Christmas in Texas! Found out our furniture will not
arrive before Christmas (on the way from Puerto Rico) so we are almost
camping! But happy to be with my sweetie, with new opportunities and new friends to
be made here and phone/Skype calls to family and friends around the world on Christmas day.
Louise A Brouillette says
We spend holidays with our family. My favorite bulb is hyacinth. I follow you on Facebook and receive your email newsletter.
Larry Doyle says
Spending the holidays with 40+ in-laws. Then finishing garden chores before the snow comes!
Tris says
Hey Kevin! Thanks for the opportunity to win. We’re doing a VERY small and quiet celebration here at home. Crockpot chili, baked spud bar, lots of soda and all the happiness that legos supply to a tween boy! I’ve never done narcissus before but we got a lot of enjoyment out of our hyacinths and daffodils last spring!
Helen says
Dear Kevin,
I’ll be spending the holidays with my mother. I’m a bulb fanatic and I believe you can never have too many bulbs, though I may be close to the limit! My fridge is full of hyacinths, crocus, and tulips, and I’m growing paperwhites, grape hyacinths, hyacinthoides, and galanthus outside. For the paperwhites, I tried rubbing alcohol this year (who would waste good gin?!?), and it worked like a charm.
Cary Bradley says
Hiya Kevin! Whipping up YOUR cinnamon rolls this am to share with terrific neighbors across the road today, and inflying California kids on arrival tomorrow. When I reminded my daughter of my childhood memory of cin rolls for Christmas morning she clucked at how cute that is, but reminded me that OUR family’s tradition is bagels, lox, cream cheese and capers! How did I forget that? argh. Guess we’ll have to enjoy Kevin’s lucious cinnamon rolls for the 10 days they are here, rather than just on Christmas morning, as was my plan. 🙂 I think we’ll have to try your topping, and your mother’s butter cream version (my mom loved the buttercream recipe from the C and H box when I was little. Yours too? Thanks too dear boy for sharing your eggnog recipe. Off to mix cinnamon roll dough. Enjoy this gorgeous day! Oh, love the idea of forcing paperwhites indoors. My now passed away sister introduced them to me when she was in college in San Diego in the 70s. My mom’s Christmas gift from her that year was the flowering bulbs. Our house smelled delicious for a LONG time! Embracing the gin idea as the falling over tops was not over-the-top ;)! Hugs!
Kirstie says
Hi Kevin
I enjoy your blog!
I will be spending the holidays with friends and family and will be doing some baking over the next few days.
I do have lots of pointsettias around the house but none are real because I am sure the cat would try and eat them!
Have a wonderful Christmas
Bill C. says
Spending Christmas day with my daughter and her family and the day after we have another party with all of the family.
Tulips& crocus are my favorite bulbs.
ArtistryFarm says
Narcissus are delicate angels of winter. Thanks for making the world beautiful, Kevin.
Katreader says
Although I have to work Christmas Day, I’ll actually be off Christmas Eve-the first time in over 15 years. If the weather cooperates I’ll be spending it with my parents-for the first time in 21 years!
Vanessa Sanders says
We will be spending Christmas at home here in Texas. Both daughters will be home from college in Nashville. There will once again be LIFE in my life, music in my home and heartand all will be well with my world. Can’t think of a better reason to celebrate nor a better way to spend Christmas. I Love paper whites. The first time I forced them the girls were in kindergarten and second grade and we did them in baskets of vermiculite and have them to teachers as Christmas gifts. The warm memories combined with the sheer beauty and magnificent fragrance make them a life long favorite.
Vicki says
Hi, Kevin! I have a cinnamon-roll recipe from my grandmother-in-law that has never quite worked the way I wanted it to on Christmas morning (I think she left out an ingredient on purpose!), so this year I am trying your cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, to have while we drink our coffee and open our stockings around our tree…. For once, having Christmas here in Khook, with immediate family and a couple of friends. Playing a Christmas Eve service to top it off (D is playing, I just sing). Narcissus would be the perfect icing on the cake this Christmas!
jon brierton says
Home alone for the holidays (well, if you don’t count my dogs!).
Marcia Gilbreath says
I love hyacinths for their fragrance and color. I am hoping the fragrance of these narcissus become a new favorite!
Melissa says
Happy Holidays to you Kevin,
This will be the first xmas we have celebrated in 2 years. Our last ones have been bittersweet.
My Mother had a stroke on xmas eve 2009 and my husband Bob’s Mother died last xmas.
I need to turn things around so we have trimmed our tree with vintage shiny brights
from the ’50’s and they look great. I have been baking cookies and trying my best to make good dinners for us. We will have a quiet time and invite friends over for dinner on 12/20 and
just have a PJ day on the 25th, or take an afternoon walk. Our children are all out of state but we were all together for Thanksgiving. My favorite bulbs are snowdrops. Thanks for sharing
everything with us. I enjoy reading and looking at your beautiful old home.
JoAnn F. says
Spending the holidays with my family & excited for my grandchild’s first Christmas. subscribed by email and like on fb & the post ( JoAnna Danna).
jofo120 at yahoo dot com
Gaye M says
I already receive your weekly newsletter and love it! We’ll have some family here for the holidays and then we’ll head out of town to see more family. And I’ve clicked the Facebook “like” button.
Cathy Rezos says
We are spending Christmas Eve dining at home hopefully enjoying your scallops recipe (remember to send side-dish suggestions!) and Christmas Day feasting on Chinese Food with friends. I certainly enjoy and look forward to your newsletter in the coming year!
Jude says
I love paperwhites! They make great Holiday Gifts.
Katharine D says
I love all kinds of bulb flowers, I have fond memories of helping my grandfather plant bulbs and his eternal fight with the chipmunks stealing them LOL. We are spending a quiet Christmas at home with the kids, too far to travel to see family and no one will travel here.
Sue S says
Visit our daughter’s family for Christmas, then spend a late January Christmas when our son is back. (Currently in the North Atlantic aboard a US Coast Guard Cutter).
It’s wonderful to have just retired and have the time to do this!! We are blessed. May you & all your readers have a blessed Christmas & New Year.
linda s says
Christmas Eve with my family in the Chicago burbs – then drive right by our ouwn home in Madison WI go spend Christmas with DH’s family in Green Bay.
linda s says
Email subscriber
crystal l allen says
i get your emails and i clicked like for facebook
we will spend Christmas eve with my mom and then Christmas day with my dad. My mom will also come over Christmas morning to see what the kids get for Christmas.
thanks! clallen at ntin dot net
Beverly in SC lowcountry says
Your newsletter always brings a smile to my face. I bought several bulbs in early November at a open house for a local landscaper. I fractured my foot in the meantime and completely forgot about them until late November. Since I couldn’t get outside to plant them, I planted them in some large beer glasses and use them as hostess gifts this season. This has really come in handy since I am pretty much housebound with this injury. I think next year that I will experiment with more. I am glad that you wrote about planting the bulbs two different ways.
Terri H says
My husband is having surgery on Dec. 22, so it’ll be a quiet one. Would love some narcissus to brighten things up. I’ve never tried forcing them before.
Nancy Giges says
Spending time with family — those very healthy and young and those infirm and not so healthy. Having time to be with people who we care about is what is so special about this time of year.
James Lambert says
I will be spending Christmas with my mother , who turned 90 this November, and my sister and her family -My niece and her fiance are flying in from France to join us for the Holidays –
so it will be a very special time. I love bulbs, and have never grown them indoors, but I have a perfect sunny windowsill and would love to try.
Dorothy says
Christmas with my family – husband, children and grandchildren in Maryland.
prairiecactus says
We will do Christmas Eve service early and then have our annual “Stocking and Soup” family get together, this is the time that we usually watch a Christmas themed movie, give each other small stocking stuffer gifts, review our year and tell the Christmas story to all the children in the family. This year we are adding a another new “squirrel” to our oldest daughter’s tree once again…a funny tradition started by our oldest son the year we watched Christmas Vacation….he has to find an opportunity to sneak it on the tree …she is getting much to watchful of him…we may have to send in a new squirrel placer!
Have a wonderful Christmas!
Mary B says
Spending the holidays at home with the family and the in-laws
dona says
I hope everyone a merry season. My Xmas this year is a quiet day between gutting and rebuilding my kitchen. A few of my neighbors and I will be sharing a meal on Xmas. I am making the turkey, stuffing and misc. dishes and eating at my neighbor who doesn’t go out much. It will be very pleasant and fun with 2 kids. Xmas is always better with children.
Ho Ho HO
donnikah says
I’ll spend the holidays in North Carolina where the whole family will gather. LIving in Florida, I am not able to grow these spring flowers. I miss the spring flowers of the north.
Cindy Tony says
Narcissus and daffodils have always been my favorites-the fragrance is out of this world!
Kay says
Hi Kevin,
The family is arriving from all over the country. It will be a very merry week!
Many thanks for all of your inspiring messages… thanks to you I’ve planted garlic, am now making cheese and saving milk jugs for winter sowing. Despite your encouragement, I’ve not yet attempted to force bulbs (I think it’s a lack of sunny spaces/spots to put plants), but would definitely make it work if I received a giveaway.
May you and those you love have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!
Lorena Keech says
I am a tulip lover myself.
Ruthann says
My favorites are snowdrops because they are one of the earliest promises of spring.
Dorothy Hubbard says
I love some many bulb flowers. but daffodils are my favorite. I am an email subscriber.
wendy says
I am already signed up for your email news letter 🙂
We are spending the holiday at my Brother in laws, he is single and really appreciates the family coming over for a festive dinner 🙂
Daffodils are my favorite bulb I guess, but I love them all , I live in Mi. and I love the bulbs for the color in the spring, 🙂 I love the first sprigs of color in the spring 🙂 Merry Christmas 🙂
Apryl says
Love your newsletter. Share it with my garden club. I will try the gin for my bulbs. I quit Facebook so I’m sad to say I can’t enter to win.
jina kessler says
Hi Kevin I must tell you how I look forward to your newsletter each Sunday. It brightens my day. Thanks to your encouragement, I have most of my perennial beds covered in shredded leaves, hyacinths & tulips chilling in my frig and egg nog on the Christmas Day family dinner menu ! I also have paper whites in bloom in a hurricane lamp style vase with shards of car windshield glass and a sprig of a Harry Lauder walking stick to keep ’em standing tall ! (also used the gin trick too ) Love the house tour pics – you are a talented soul! I hope you and those you love have a wonderful Christmas and a most happy & healthy New Year
jina
kay wolter says
We are a unique family both inlaws and My family all live within 30 minutes of each other except My Sister who just moved to Arizonia. So We will be doing the family Christmas and thanking God for all We have. Would love to win Michigan winters are grey We have no snow yet…..will We be no snow this Christmas
Debbie Kammenzind says
Just got my first seed catalog in the mail and will spend some of the holiday looking through it, but the rest of the time I’ll spend enjoying some down time with family.
Happy Holidays!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
This drawing is now closed. Winners have been notified by email.