UID 8W-W "Belle of the Vale"
Most folks don't care for paperwhites, but a few of us do. Planted in cemeteries in the coastal South, they were seen as a symbol of the Resurrection as they bloom when nothing else is in flower. They can be found planted along rural fences and lost property lines in small communities. Paperwhites are also a favorite of late butterflies and other pollinators, providing nectar and pollen when other flowers are scarce.
To date, three notable paperwhites have been collected. One was collected from a late Victorian garden in north Florida, and is the least similar to the "general" paperwhite form.
One was collected from a site in Natchez, Mississippi dating back to the 1840s. It could be a remnant of old commercial paperwhites (when they were simply collected in the southern Mediterranean and sold on) or it could be a seedling hybrid that pollinators created in the garden.
The third is found across south Georgia and north Florida in gardens dating to the 1920s. Given its broad distribution and uniformity of form, it is likely an old commercial strain. A notable Tallahassee garden designer said during her childhood in the 1940s this form was called "Snowflake."
The flower from Natchez has a lightly ruffled cup. The Victorian form has a narrow floret but is of great landscape value; it reliably sends up a second stalk providing an extended bloom season. "Snowflake" is a smaller but more rounded floret 'Paper White Grandiflorus'. However, it lacks Grandiflorus' large truss of bloom; instead it simply dribbles along for a longer garden presence.
None have that sharp, acrid bite to their fragrance that the traditional old paperwhite 'Paper White Grandiflorus' has (as well as the modern cultivar 'Ziva'). "Snowflake" blooms a week earlier or more than 'Paper White Grandiflorus', while 'Miss Linda' will bloom for weeks. The Natchez strain has yet to settle into a regular bloom time,.