Purchase healthy, high-quality paper-white bulbs free of bruises or soft spots. You can start forcing paper-whites as soon as you can buy them in fall and continue planting every two weeks until you can no longer find quality bulbs - usually late winter to spring.

Select clay, ceramic or plastic pots with drainage holes. An 8-inch-wide pot will hold 8 to 10 bulbs.


Fill pots partially with potting soil. Put in just enough so that when bulbs are added, the tops of the bulbs are just below the top of the pot.


Place the bulbs in the pot, pointed side up. Pack them in as tightly as you can. They should touch one another.


Fill the rest of the pot with enough potting soil to cover bulbs, but leaving enough room to water.


Water the pot thoroughly.



Place the pot in a warm, well-lighted indoor location (such as a sunny window) and keep the soil moist. Paper-whites usually bloom in about six weeks.


After blooming, if the soil is not frozen, plant the bulbs outside and keep them moist.