Forcing Bulbs for Indoor Bloom

Late summer is the time of blue skies, russets, golds and reds, dreamy hazy, lazy air. How can we remember at such a time next February’s drab, sunless, short days - flowerless days, too - unless we prepare ahead for a window bulb garden? Perhaps the glory of autumn steals our forward thinking, so make a note on your October garden calendar “Bulb forcing time.” And start planning now for a window of red tulips rising from blue-green leaves, golden daffodils drinking in the distant sunlight, and fragrant hyacinths, white, pink and many shades of blue.

For a number of years I tried varied methods of bulb forcing, gained by hearsay and bits of information gleaned from seed catalog’s, the we, magazines and other sources, only to be disappointed when the hour of promised fulfillment arrived. A course in “Bulb Forcing for Beginners” offered at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis was the answer to long sought know-how. The next February was a resplendent month in our house, a pot of six pale blue hyacinths on the hall table, darker blue spikes rising from hyacinth glasses in the windows, red and yellow tulips and tall-stemmed, golden daffodils in the sunroom, ‘Paper White’ and Gold narcissus perfuming the rooms from their pastel bowls of pebbles.

Perhaps our earlier failures were due in part to the use of inferior bulbs or those ill-suited to indoor culture. Therefore the choice of bulbs is of utmost importance. Select prime or specially prepared bulbs for forcing, from a reliable vendor.

Hyacinths are the easiest to force indoors, and the most satisfying in their display and length of blooming. The French Roman Hyacinth is a fairly early bloomer and rewards the grower with more than one spike to the bulb. These may be started in late August or early September, as soon as available.

The large Dutch varieties produce one large spike per bulb and are adapted either to pot or glass culture. They are usually on the market in late September and should bloom ten to 12 weeks after planting. The indoor gardener would do well to obtain the hyacinth bulbs prepared especially for forcing. They mature earlier and produce better flowers. They can be started in pots of loose, loamy soil, in gravel pans or hyacinth glasses-vases with constricted necks that hold the bulb above the water. Hyacinth glasses are made of various shades of glass, from very dark blue and amber to ice blue or clear. Placed in an east window when the hyacinths bloom, these glasses of lovely flowers bring cheer to the drab, wintry days.

Tulips for Forcing

Tulips best suited for forcing are the early doubles or singles. Snatch up the longest lasting varieties, but a succession of plantings of several varieties keeps the house ablaze with color over a long period of time.

Best of daffodils are the tall, stout-stemmed selections.

A succession of flowering bowls of ‘Paper White’, Gold and Narcissus orientalis, or Chinese Sacred-Lily, may be had by planting these easiest to grow “tender” bulbs every week or so. Those started in August or September should mature by Thanksgiving, but the December and January pottings will bloom in three or four weeks, for the flower bud matures within the bulb as time elapses.

Soil culture of all hardy bulbs is essentially the same. New or well scrubbed and soaked “pans” (shallow clay pots) are used although plastic pots work as well. Place a piece of broken pot over the hole, fill pot to within an inch and a half of the top with loose rich soil. No fertilizer is needed as the strength for this year’s blooming is already stored in the bulb.

Cold Frame or Pit

Place five to seven bulbs, all the same variety, about an inch apart on top of the soil, and press and twist them down into the loose soil until they are buried just above the shoulder or greatest diameter. If you have a cold frame, the pots can be partly submerged in the soil, to discourage sow bugs from entering beneath, and the space between the pots filled in with peat moss or leaves, and leaves or other coarse material spread over all. Cover the cold frame with glass.

Or the pots can be buried in a pit about 18 inches deep, after an inch of sand has been poured over the bulbs. The sand facilitates removal from the earth later, for it can be lightly brushed off the sprouted bulbs before bringing them in. Water well, whether in cold frame or trench.

Another method of promoting root development is to place the potted bulbs in a cool (55 degrees) dark basement room. Here they must be kept moist but not wet, watering every two weeks or oftener if the soil dries. Now is the period of strong root development. Until good roots have formed there will be no flowering. About 12 weeks after planting, the pots can be brought into a cool but light room. Coolness now is the key to success. A breezeway, attic room or glassed unheated sleeping porch should be an ideal location for this next stage of conditioning. Remember, your bulbs in the garden mature and flower in the spring when the weather is very cool and the nights chill.

Do not place the pots in the sunlight. Soon the tips will become green and grow taller. The buds will appear before the leaves unfurl.

by A Hemmer

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