i’ve never “forced” any kind of blooming branches before, but now that i have access to all kinds of bloomables right outside my door and (this is key) FOR FREE, i am hooked. [side note: i’ve never been a fan of buying cut flowers. i love them, but i’d rather grow them myself, and when i couldn’t do that, i’d rather buy something at the farmers’ market i could actually eat rather than just look at. i did love it when my CSA had extra cut flowers that we could take though!]
i’d prefer to call it “coaxing” or “encouraging”, but whatever you call it, forcing forsythia could not have been easier. i read up on methods and angles of cutting the branch, soaking the ends in hot water, putting sugar in the water, and changing the water daily, and i did none of the above. just chopped off the branches and stuck them in water, and about 2 weeks later, BLOOMS! and this while the snowstorm of the year raged outside. they have been in bloom for about 4 weeks now (the photos above are from 2/16 just before blooming, and 2/25 in bloom) and today little green leaves are popping out all over. i think i might stick them in the ground and see if they’ll actually root.
4 Comments