I know they're more of a holiday thing, Paper Whites (Narcissus). That's when you see them in the stores alongside their showy neighbors, the Amaryllis. But, I don't know, somehow I wanted them in January this year.
December need not pout about that. After all, she gets the velvet ribbon, the evergreen, the glitter, the tinsel, and the twinkly lights. January gets nothing. Nothing except maybe a few battered cardboard boxes passing through from every closet in the house, headed for the attic, their contents scrawled on their sides in ugly black marker.
You can probably see clearly now why I plunked down the $2.00 at a thrift store awhile back for this pot, and why I plunked down the discounted $3.00 price for the box of Paper Whites. I knew you'd understand.
January needed something special. And these girls are.
It seemed to me that they could bridge the winter/spring divide like none other. They start out looking closed up and wintry with their bulb skin wrappings drawn up around their shoulders and their pale noses just peeking out, but come February, they'll be giving a good showing of their slender, green leaves, and their ruffled, pure white petals will be dancing around them like so many flouncy skirts. Oh, and the scent will be like a spritz of spring every time someone walks by.
Sigh. A spritz of spring!
(I have to say that it's just like January to pass the girls on to February when it's time for her to wave her farewell in her sweet January way. After all, February does have a holiday to prepare for.)
I'll be here, anxiously fussin' over 'em.
