Paperwhites: Winter's Lagniappe

I have always loved Paperwhites, and they are just beginning to bloom here in Mississippi. I spotted a bed of Paperwhites yesterday and couldn't resist capturing them with my camera. Although the recent ice storm had taken its toll on most of the blooms, there were a couple of flowers that were standing tall in the early morning sunshine.

Paperwhites have a very special place in my heart. My husband and I were married when we were in college, and lived in a small garage apartment near the school. Without fail, every Friday afternoon when I got out of class, I would go home and clean that little apartment from top to bottom, including waxing the wood floors.

After I finished cleaning, I would walk down the street a couple of blocks to a vacant lot where there were some Paperwhites scattered around an old home site. I would cut some of the flowers, take them home, and arrange them in one of our "wedding-gift-vases," and you'd have thought I had created a masterpiece worthy of the pages of "Southern Living" magazine. I loved walking around that tiny apartment, smelling the heavenly fragrance of the Paperwhites and admiring my shiny floors and clean house (all four rooms of it!).

To this day, every time I see or smell Paperwhites, they take me back to those days when I was a very young and happy new bride. I'd like to think that the owner of that vacant lot wouldn't have minded me "borrowing" some of the flowers, if he knew how happy they made me.

I love the way the centers of the flowers in the next picture look as if they're glowing. They remind me of the song, "This Little Light of Mine" ...

Paperwhites are members of the Narcissus family, which is typically associated with Daffodils and Jonquils. Paperwhites are smaller, but what they lack in size, they make up for in fragrance and charm — and what bright and beautiful lagniappe these pretty little white clusters of flowers bring to our Mississippi landscapes in the middle of winter.