I wrote recently about watering your paperwhites with alcohol to get them to grow sturdier and not fall over. A reader wrote to ask whether it would work with bulbs planted in soil or other types of bulbs. The Cornell professor who did the original experiment did try it with soil planted bulbs, but the success wasn't as marked. A professor at another university had better luck adding a splash of alcohol to the water of cut bulb flowers. Wouldn't it be nice to keep your tulips standing?
I was reminded that Harry Brindley, over at slappHappe, gave alcohol a try with his amaryllis. You can see the results of both his first try and his follow-up the following year at "The Amaryllis Experiment", complete with a stop action movie of the vodka tippling amaryllis and the amaryllis that was quenched with only water. It really is pretty amazing.
Photo: © Marie Iannotti
Comments
Put a copper penny in the vase of cut bulb flowers they will not flop over and they last longer. I do this all the time and it works.
I remember hearing something about using pennies, but I thought it was to keep the flowers fresh longer. Something about the copper keeping the bacteria at bay. I wonder if there’s even enough copper left in pennies to do the trick.
I’ll try it again and see how well they stay standing up straight.