Forcing flower bulbs is a fantastic way to bring those beautiful blooms and scents into the home.
Incredibly easy to do, and resulting in a fantastic and beautiful decoration to cheer living spaces, creating a forced bulb display is very rewarding.
However, there are a few considerations to make when first setting out.
Pre-Chilled or Not Most bulbs use the natural yearly cycle to determine when to start growing and flowering.
Spring bulbs take their cue from the winter cold, with heavy frosts and snows freezing the ground.
As the warmer weather of spring arrives, the ground thaws and signs of life start to appear in bulbs.
Due to this natural pattern, bulbs will often need chilling in a fridge to simulate a winter period.
Whilst some bulbs can be bought pre-chilled, many others will need to be put through this process, so it is important to think ahead of schedule.
Three to four months are often needed, so if you want your bulbs to flower successfully in the winter period, you need to buy bulbs and starting chilling as early as September or October.
Alternatively you can buy pre-chilled bulbs which can be forced immediately.
However, after their first season, these too will need be placed in the cold to simulate a naturally occurring year.
Hyacinths and Paperwhites If you want to start forcing immediately and avoid the chilling period for the first season, it is best to use paperwhites (Narcissus), or hyacinths.
Whilst hyacinths do need a natural chilling cycle they are often available pre-chilled, meaning that you can plant them immediately.
Meanwhile, daffodil variety paperwhite does not need chilling for it's first season, allowing these beautiful and heavily scented flowers to be grown in no time at all.
Amaryllis This beautiful plant, with stunningly large flowers, is a fantastic option for anyone wanting to grow bulbs inside.
Not needing a chilling period, the amaryllis bulb will flower once a year, with a resting period needed for about eight weeks, in which time the entire bulb is allowed to dry out.
Tulips, Crocus, Iris, and Daffodils Species of other spring flowering bulbs such as crocuses, tulips, irises and daffodils can also all be grown by bulb forcing.
However, these bulbs will need a chilling period with times varying between ten weeks for crocus specimens to nearly four months for tulips.
All can be grown inside offering the unique ability to fill the house with flowers and scent, but for all of these bulbs a degree of planning ahead is needed.
Forcing bulbs is a great way to bring spring flowers into the house during a period when nothing outside may be in bloom.
With carefully planning and process even the most difficult of blooms can be discovered.
And by utilising a range of different species and families, you can have forced bulbs in your home all year round.