PaperwhitesTo get the most from your paperwhites, Portland floral designer Linda Beutler has a suggestion: Get out your paring knife.
Cutting vertical slits in paperwhite bulbs will release latent bulblets and result in more foliage and more flowers.
In a technique she learned from Mark Vossbrink of Rainyday Flowers in Beaverton, Beutler uses a sharp knife to make four small cuts, two on each lobe. Picture it this way: Each bulb is an oval, divided down the middle into two shoulders. You want to make two vertical slices on each shoulder. Don't cut all the way through the layers, just a few -- enough so that the small bulblets under the skin can pop through.
"You can almost feel the release, as if there was tension in there," she says.
-- Homes & Gardens staff
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