Place your beautiful Forced Blooms INDOORS in the winter!
Beautiful Forced Blooms Indoors in the Winter! (courtesy of Master Gardener Carrie Petty)
Under this blanket of Indiana snow, in these subzero temperatures are sleeping little miracles. Bulbs, planted in the autumn, are now resting before they spring forward in April. Bulbs are seasonal wonders that know when it is time to wake-up from a long winters nap. But why wait?
As a gardener, the hardest thing to do is wait. It is especially hard to wait for lush green color and beautiful blooms. So here are a few easy ways to “force” the garden into bloom indoors. Bulbs are one of the easiest things to grow; you just need increased warmth and light to “force” them into bloom. I like to group them together in a small dish filled with clean rocks or pebbles. The point of the bulb is your top, and the opposite end is where the roots emerge. Place daffodils, paper whites, crocus or other already cooled bulbs in the dish and fill the dish with water. Fill with just enough water to touch the edge, half way up the side of the bulb.
Place your bulbs in front of a warm, sunlit window and watch the little green tips begin to pop out of the top of your awakening bundle. You can find bulbs ready to “force” in any garden center. I even buy spring bulbs in January, and put them in the fridge for about 6 weeks, then plant in containers of soil so I have them ready for my Easter celebration. You can do this now!
Gardening really is an all year around kind of hobby. I think that is why it is the number one hobby in America! And it makes these cold winter days pass by with connectivity and beauty. You can find me working in the garage at my gardening bench all winter long. This kind of indoor gardening work in the middle of Winter, helps us all “Grow a More Beautiful Life!”
Carrie Petty is a fourth generation Hoosier! She is Lectures across the Nation, Master Gardener, as well as a top Garden and Lifestyle Blogger. An amateur naturalist, painter & photographer, Petty loves teaching families how to, “Grow a More Beautiful Life.”
Find here articles monthly in all the TownPost Magazines and on her gardening & lifestyle blog: www.CarriePetty.com. She can also be found on Facebook and Twitter @Caroline_Garden.