Thinking ahead for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, imagine your home with fresh blooms. Bring spring garden indoors by “forcing” spring-blooming bulbs.
Forcing is a horticulture technique that fast-forwards bloom cycles, urging blooms to initiate out of season. The easiest spring bulbs to force are crocus, hyacinths, and narcissus. Of these showy blooming, paperwhite narcissus bulbs are the easiest to force inside because they do not require chilling to initiate flowering. For these reasons paperwhites are one of the most popular bulbs to force indoors.
Here’s how to coax these favorite blossoms to be enjoyed indoors.
Gather items.
• Suitable planting medium. Paperwhite bulbs need ample drainage. Potting soil is often heavy therefore, the usual and recommended planting media are pebbles, gravel, marble chips, or any colorful stones. Be certain stones or gravel are sterile before use.
• Containers. Forcing containers are usually shallow glass or ceramic with no drainage. Hobby stores and greenhouses sell containers for just this use. Select a container that is shallow, 3 to 5 inches deep.
Purchase high-quality bulbs.
Paperwhites are available now at nurseries, greenhouses, and home improvement stores and ordered from catalogs like Easy to Grow Bulbs (easytogrowbulbs.com) and Gardener's Supply (gardeners.com). Dutch Brown Bulbs (dutchgrown.com) recommends the variety ‘Ziva’ for forcing.
• Plan for enough bulbs to fill the container without allowing the bulbs to touch.
Assemble bulbs in pots.
• Groupings of several bulbs is more effective than single bulbs. Place bulbs with the pointy side up and the flat side in contact with the pebbles. Add more pebbles so that bulbs are about one-half covered, just enough to keep bulbs from flopping over. It is important to not bury the bulb; cover with just enough pebbles to keep the bulb in place. After bulbs send out roots, the root system will anchor bulbs. Add water just to the bottoms of the bulbs. Submerging the base will initiate rot. Maintain this water level throughout flower initiation and end of blooming.
• Place in a cool, dark location until green shoots appear. This step is not essential but will speed root development and shorten the forcing period. Green shoots should appear in a few weeks.
• Once green shoots have poked up through the bulbs’ papery scales, move into full sun. This step is essential. It is amazing how rapidly shoots expand and flower stalks appear once bulbs are given strong light.
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