We've mentioned that our flower bulbs come from farmers all over the world. Wherever the very best combination of growing conditions for a specific plant exist, that's where we go searching for the most accomplished producer.

Take paperwhites, for example. Israel offers the perfect blend of soil, climate, superior plant genetics and deep grower knowledge. The paperwhite narcissus produced there are consistently a cut above those grown elsewhere.

All our paperwhite bulbs are field grown by a fellow named Eytan, an Israeli flower farmer who works the land that his grandfather owned and cultivated eighty years ago. Eytan specializes in about a half dozen bulb varieties. Admittedly this is a limited number, but for these he's an acknowledged expert and he cultivates about 100 acres annually.

Some years back, Etyan partnered with a neighbor, another accomplished grower, and took just a few bulbs each of almost two dozen new cultivars developed by the Agricultural Research Organization of Israel. The goal was to grow and test these bulbs to determine if any were improvements on the current paperwhites in the marketplace. Of the twenty plus varieties considered for eventual production, only four demonstrated winning characteristics.

The four superior varieties, named Ariel, Nir, Wintersun and Inball (after his neighbor's daughter), were carefully reviewed for height, scent, stem strength, number of flower stalks, blooms per stalk and size of blooms. After painstaking observation, it was decided that these four cultivars possessed the qualities required to warrant broad introduction to gardeners around the world.

We are pleased to be able to offer this quartet of new paperwhite cultivars, along with the classic Ziva, for your holiday decorating and warm weather garden growing. With endorsements from a grower as knowledgeable as Etyan, we feel comfortable recommending these.

(Note: we couldn't resist digging for a little insider info so we asked Etyan which of the new varieties is his personal favorite and, while he's very proud of them all, the answer was Nir.)