Episode 193 - Narcissus for the New Year

Wishing you a Happy and Prosperous Year of the Ox.

Episode 192 - Narcissus for the New Year (3)

The flowers are out today.

I have moved the flowering bulbs to a flower vase.

Compare with those last year, the leaves of the narcissus are much shorter, thanks for the excellent weather condition. These bulbs are early birds. The other narcissus bulbs still need a few days more to blossom - just in time for the Chinese New Year.

Episode 191 - Narcissus for the New Year (2)

Although the weather was cold in the past weeks, there was sufficient sunshine.

Some of the bulbs from the first batch have already developed mature flower shoots. It is expected that they will start to blossom in the course of next week. The last batch of bulbs is developing flower shoots and will flower in the Chinese New Year days.

The qualities of the bulbs are acceptable. Whilst they are not in very regular shapes, most of them have at least 7 to 8 flower shoots.

Episode 190 - Narcissus for the New Year (1)

I purchased 3 boxes of narcissus bulbs from the flower market.

The prices of the bulbs have dropped this year: HK$85 for 2 boxes with eight bulbs; and HK$68 for one box with 6 large bulbs. Unfortunately, the qualities of the bulbs appear to have dropped as well.

This morning we invited one of Chiu Yin's classmates to do the cutting. Educational and fun!

It normally takes around 23 days for the bulb to flower after the cutting. If the weather is unusually warm (like 2006) the time may be shortened to less than 20 days. Likewise, cold winter (like last year) would prolong the time required. In order to ensure that I have flowering narcissus on the Chinese New Year days, I did the cutting in 3 batches. The first batch was completed 2 days ago. The last batch was cut earlier today. If we cut the bulbs one or two days later, we may not be able to see the flowers on the first day of the New Year unless the weather in the next 20 days is as warm as 2006 - which is unlikely. There are of course remedial measures. If the weather is unusually warm, we can move the narcissus into the refrigerator for a few days to delay the flowering time. If the weather is unusually cold, we can add warm water to the flower vase and move the narcissus under spot lights. I do not like to use any of these remedial measures if they are avoidable.

I purchased a set of narcissus vases at the flower market this afternoon - see the first photo. They are beautiful, aren't they? A set of 4 vases only costs HK$170. The flowering narcissus will look more attractive in these vases.

You can click on the links below for the cutting method (normal cut) and photos of the flowering narcissus last year.


Cutting method

Flowering Narcissus


P.S. I visited the flower market earlier today (10th January 2009). They were selling cut narcissus bulbs at HK$15 each.
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