How To: Force Bulbs Indoors

I adore flowers.  I love planting flowers, I love receiving flowers, I love pruning flowers, and I love arranging flowers.  I often pick up a bright, fresh bouquet when I’m shopping at Costco, just because it makes me happy to have them in my kitchen.  This is especially true during the cold winter months.  My kitchen sink overlooks my little backyard.  In the summer time I have a direct view of my raised garden bed where I can keep an eye on the tomatoes and the herbs and watch the flowers blooming.  But in the winter, I have a great view of a giant brown heap of dirt.  And perennials cut down to the ground, and dead grass.  It’s lovely.  And it’s what I have to stare at when I’m doing endless amounts of dishes.  But right now, I have these sitting on my windowsill:

I don’t mind staring at them at all, and it makes hand picking the dried-up fruity pebbles off the cereal bowls a little more bearable.  Why do dried fruity pebbles have the same holding power as industrial strength super glue?

Forcing bulbs is a way you can take garden bulbs that grow outside and grow them inside your house in the cold winter months (or any time really.)  I realize that in many parts of the country, spring is already here- but just a few days ago we had a big snow storm where I live, so I’ll grasp at any hint of spring I can find.

I especially love forcing bulbs around Easter time.  It’s such a beautiful symbol of growth, and rebirth, and  when timed just right, it makes a gorgeous, living centerpiece to your holiday table.

Many bulbs (like hyacinth, tulips and the daffodils I’ve done above) require a chilling period, which complicates things a bit and prolongs the process (I’ll write a tutorial about that another time!) but one of the bulbs that doesn’t require this are Paperwhites.  In the daffodil family, they grow clusters of little white flowers and they’re the quickest and easiest bulbs to force.  They require very little maintenance and don’t even require a green thumb (even Kate could do it!)  This is a great project to do with kids too; they will love keeping their eye on these bulbs and cheering at the first sight of roots, tips, and flowers.

You’ll need a container; and it can be any number of things.  Glass vases work great.  They look really pretty, and the glass makes it easy to monitor the water level.  Once the flowers grow tall, having the glass sides helps the flowers from flopping over.  Wide, shallow containers, like my blue and white one in the photo work well too.  And you can even use baskets and decorative containers if they are lined with a waterproof container on the inside.

The planting material can vary from small pebbles (which can be purchased in bags, shown below, from craft or gardening stores), to glass marbles, or small stones.  It’s basically just used to hold the bulbs in place.

You can purchase paperwhites at nurseries and garden supply stores, or online.  They’re pretty commonly found in garden stores during the fall and winter months, because they’re popular to plant around the holidays.  You should still be able to find them now, and if nothing else- they’re easily located online.  Sometimes they come in large bags (with 20+ bulbs).  If that’s the case, consider sharing with a friend, or starting multiple containers to giveaway, or to bunch together for a gorgeous large display.

First, fill your container with the planting material.  Place the bulbs, root side down, so the pebbles cover about 1/3-1/2 the bulb.  The top of the bulb looks similar to an onion, like this:

And the bottom side, looks similar to an onion as well- see the little roots coming off there?  Make sure you plant that side down!

Paperwhites look good planted in mass, or as a single bulb in a smaller container.

The actual bulbs won’t change in size, so you can place them close together- just avoid having them touch if you can.

Place water in your container, so it’s just barely touching the bottom of the bulb.  You don’t want the bulbs swimming in there or they will rot, so just get it barely close to the bottom.  This is where a glass container comes in handy.  If you’re pouring water into a tall vase, pour it carefully down the side so you don’t splash the tops of the bulbs.

Within a few days, you should notice little roots growing out the bottom.  The roots will find their way to the water, growing around the stones and therefore anchoring the bulbs in place.

Then the little green tips will start to sprout out the top,

and they’ll just keep on growing.  I like to gift paperwhites when they’re a few inches tall, like this:

Tie a ribbon around an inexpensive glass vase and they make a great hostess gift.  You should see your first blooms within about 4-6 weeks. I forced this particular batch last fall, and somehow I’m missing all of my photos of when they’re actually in bloom!  Go figure.  It’s okay, Google can save the day.  They have little clusters of sweet papery white flowers.

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(photo source: Dave’s Garden)

They also have a distinct smell, that people seem to either love, or hate!  Once they get tall, they can sometimes get leggy and start to flop over.  When they get to that point, I take a pretty ribbon and just tie it around the stems to hold them together.

(photo source: Dave’s Garden)

Once paperwhite bulbs are forced, they can’t be forced again.  If you live in a warmer garden zone (8-11) they do well outdoors, so you can plant them outside to bloom in future years, but in cooler climates, they won’t do so well so it’s best to just toss the bulbs once they’re finished blooming.