Forced forsythia branches in bloom

A couple of weeks ago, I cut some forsythia branches from the garden to force into bloom. I put them into the basement near my plant lights (where we keep our non-hardy succulents over the winter), and just waited. Now they are in full bloom, giving us a wonderful preview of spring.

I didn’t do anything special, but I think the reasons for success are:

• cutting the branches near the end of winter, when the buds have started to swell
• the mild winter certainly helped — we didn’t have any abnormally harsh -18C (0.4F) night time temperatures that can sometimes kill off the buds
• keeping the branches cool at first (in the basement) so the transition to room temperature was gradual, just the way spring temperatures warm up outside.

Now I’m keen to try forcing some of my other woody spring flowering plants. According to the Martha Stewart website, “Any woody, deciduous shrub or tree that flowers in the early spring is a good candidate for forcing; forsythia, flowering quince, cherry, plum, pear, magnolia and pussy willow are natural choices.”

Her instructions for forcing branches are a bit more involved than mine. I didn’t use cut flower food and I didn’t cover the branches up. I simply cut them, put them in water and left them in a cool place.

Once the blooms began to open — this took about 10 days — I brought them upstairs into a warmer room. We do keep our house cool at night, so it looks like our forced branches will certainly last at least a week, if not longer.

PS: Out in the garden, we have the first snowdrops in flower. Our hellebores (Helleborus x hybridus) have buds. They have been wanting to flower all winter long.

Tagged as: forcing forsythia