Forcing Bulbs Indoors

Bring Outside Bloomers Inside

Looking for a while to brighten up those dull winter days? Start in the fall to force spring blooming bulbs inddors and you can have lovely blooms in the middle of winter. Growing bulbs indoors is easy and fun, and takes up very little space. Creating a simulated short winter does the trick. Fool potted bulbs into thinking t's winter by putting them in a cool closet, in the refrigerator, or if it's cold outside, in a foam cooler on a balcony, patio or porch. By doing this, they will grow sturdy roots and start to sprout in preparation for spring.

Start With Good Soil

You can make your own potting soil, or use any commercial organic potting mix. You can do it easily.Use 2 parts peat moss, one part perlite, and one part sterilized potting soil. Get all these things mixed together well. These ingredients will make a nutrient filled potting soil that is clean, porous, and moisture retaining,.

Unsterilized soil from your outside garden because it may contain bacterial or fungal pathogens that could infect the plant roots, so it's better not to use it.

Going To Pot

After you have the soil ready, choose the pot you want to use and place a few pieces of broken crockery over the drainage holes. Place it so the soil can't fall out during the planting process, but with enough free space to allow water to still drain out the hole.

Begin by filling the pot half-full of soil mix. Keep the pointed ends up when placing the bulbs in the container. Without actually letting the bulbs touch, plant the bulbs as closely together as possible. Fill the pot with soil mix, then water the bulbs thoroughly from the top or immerse in a tub of water. That will settle the soil around the bulbs.

Give The Bulbs Some Time

Early blooming bulbs like crocus, daffodils and snowdrops work well.  You can get some lovely bulbs to use from many places. For instance, click here for Daffodils from Breck's, plus many other lovely flowering bulbs). To force these early bloomers takes about 12 weeks. Tulips and bulbs like them need longer, about 16 weeks. The flowers will be taller if they are left in cold storage longer.

Too short a time in storage will result in smaller plants and sometimes flowers that start to grown then die.

The Bulbs Need Light.

When the right number of weeks is almost up, start checking the pots now and then. Fine white roots coming out of the drainage holes, and/or shoots 2 or three inches above the soil, are signs to take the pots out of cold storage.

Once the bulbs are at this point, they should be placed in indirect lighting for a while before moving them to direct sunlight. Be carefuly not to allow the soil to dry out.

It also works better to first move bulbs to a fairly cool location if possible, such as an unheated entryway or closed off back bedroom, where the temperatures are in the ’50s, before moving them on to the heated areas of the house, and into more direct sunlight.

Don't Throw The Bulbs Out - Reuse Them.

The bulbs can be reused if you cut the flower stems off after the blooms die. Make sure the foliage has plenty of sunlight to continue to grow, as this gather nutrients for the bulb to bloom next year.

After the foliage withers, don’t pull the leaves off. Leaving the leaves in place, store the bulbs in the pots in a cool, dry place until they can be planted outside. Don’t try to make the same bulbs bloom inside again, as the bulb is weakened from being forced to bloom. Blooms, if any, produced from a second forcing would be small.

Planting the bulbs in the garden allows them to return to a natural schedule with the seasons. After a year or two they should be back on schedule and making a beautiful display of blooms at the appropriate times.