Our New Forcing Page (with Cool, Antique Images) Debuts

        If you’re thinking of forcing bulbs indoors this winter, you’ll find all the guidance you need along with some cool illustrations from antique catalogs at our new “Forcing Bulbs” page at oldhousegardens.com/Forcing.asp . Give it a look! (Aug. 2008)

Pickled Paperwhites Stand Up Straighter

        To prevent your paperwhites from getting tall and floppy, give them a good stiff drink. It’s true! Scientific testing by Professor Bill Miller of Cornell’s Flower Bulb Research Program confirmed that paperwhites grown in water with a 5% concentration of alcohol bloomed beautifully on stems one-third shorter than teetotaling paperwhites. Since most liquors are about 40% alcohol, that works out to 1 part booze to 7 parts water. Gin, vodka, whiskey, rum, and tequila all work well, but Miller cautions that, just as with humans, too much alcohol is disastrous. To read his entire entertaining report, click here. (Dec. 2006)

Extra-Easy Refrigerator Forcing

        Here’s an almost unbelievably easy way to coax fragrant hyacinths into bloom on your winter windowsill. Though books and experts may tell you it’s impossible, our customers showed us that it really works. Simply refrigerate your bulbs DRY IN A PAPER BAG for at least ten weeks, then put them on water AT NORMAL ROOM TEMPERATURE to grow roots and leaves and bloom. Easiest of all are ‘Lady Derby’ and ‘L’Innocence’; other varieties may need more time in the fridge. We’ll send instructions with every order, or you can read them online right now. (2006-07 catalog)

Antique Hyacinth Vases

        American gardeners of the 1800s loved forcing hyacinths in special vases for winter bloom. The practice dates back to the mid-1700s when Madame Pompadour, influential mistress of Louis XV, had hundreds of hyacinths forced in vases at Versailles. Today, antique hyacinth glasses are collected worldwide. For a glimpse of the immense collection of Dutch enthusiast Wim Granneman, visit http://www.kennemerend.nl/bollenglazen. Among other treats, Wim’s homespun site offers a link to Querbeet, a German garden shop offering many forcing vases, including a reproduction from 1888, and the world’s only book about them, Hyazinthen Glaser.
        For our reproduction vases [currently unavailable], click here. (Dec. 2005)

How Are Your Forced Bulbs Coming Along?

        While the bulbs you’re forcing are rooting, a temperature between 35 and 50 degrees is essential. If it’s not cold enough long enough, the bulbs can’t do the chemical reactions they need to do to grow and flower. You’ll know you’ve short-changed them if the flower stems are weirdly short, sometimes blooming while barely out of the bulb itself. But if the temperature is too low, rooting and growth can be VERY slow. A max-min or high-low thermometer (available from many good garden centers) is one easy solution.
        Also be careful that bulbs you’re forcing in soil stay evenly moist. Early on or when temperatures are low, bulbs often grow slowly and use little water. Later they often grow more quickly and pots can dry out quickly. So check your pots regularly and keep a finger on the soil. (Jan. 2004)

Emily Dickinson’s Hyacinths

        In early 1884, poet and flower lover Emily Dickinson wrote to her sister:
        “I have made a permanent rainbow by filling a window with hyacinths, which Science will be glad to know. . . .” (2003-04 catalog)
        [To learn more about Dickinson and her gardening, see Emily Dickinson’s Gardens and The Gardens of Emily Dickinson in the Books section of our Newsletter Archives.]

Bone Shavings & Hartshorn: Victorian Tips on Forcing

        In his 1863 Flowers for the Parlor and Garden, popular Victorian garden writer E. S. Rand gave some unusual tips for forcing hyacinths:
       “If small bits of powdered charcoal be mixed with the earth, it imparts great depth and brilliancy of color to the flowers, and a dark, rich green to the foliage. Bone shavings or horn scrapings assist a full development of foliage and flower. If the plants are watered once a fort-night with a very weak solution of glue, or a few drops of hartshorn added to the water, the same effect with be produced.” (1999-2000 catalog)

Re-blooming Hyacinths After Forcing Them

        “Can I plant my hyacinths in my garden after I force them indoors?” That’s a question we’re often asked. Here’s one testimonial from our long-time customer Bonnie Jean Malcolm of Essex, Massachusetts, writing of gardening at her former home in the San Bernardino Mountains of California:
       “I force my hyacinths in hyacinth jars. After they stop blooming, I take them out of the water and lay them on a paper bag and let them dry. . . . In the fall, I plant them outside with plant food (whatever kind I have). . . . I had read that one should just throw away forced bulbs, as they never did well, but I couldn’t bear to throw away such lovely bulbs. . . . Mine settled in and multiplied and I got good blooms.” (1999-2000 catalog)

Forcing Bulbs in Freezing Bedrooms: Canada, Circa 1869

        If you’ve ever had any trouble forcing bulbs, this letter from 1869 New Brunswick will help put your problems in perspective and introduce you – across the centuries – to Juliana Ewing, a young woman with the enthusiasm and undaunted spirit of a true gardener.
       “I have been much more successful this year than last. 1st – Our little house will keep out the extreme frost & the other one we lived in last year would not. We used to carry the hyacinth pots up to bed with us – put them round the stove – and bury them in dressing gowns, &c., but the poor things were frozen and thawed – over & over again!!
       “2dly – Last year I bought my bulbs here, & they were not first-rate I think. This year . . . I got them from Carter & Sons at Home. They were not kept dry enough & when I got them mould had begun. I lost all the aconites – & anemones – & almost all the snowdrops & crocuses – but my hyacinths & narcissi & tulips were none the worse. . . .
       “I planted them in leaf mould & sand just as I used to do at home, kept them in my dress closet in my room for their dark month, & brought them out by degrees into my ‘forcing house’!!!! This is the tiny ‘landing’ at the top of the stairs. It has a window – & what is called a ‘dumb stove’ – i.e. a ‘drum’ or box of iron through which the pipe of the hall stove runs – & which thus warms the upper part of the house. The window is very near it, & on the window sill I force my bulbs! But every night I have to move them from the glass (though we have double windows) – as if a ‘snap’ of increased frost came, I might lose them one & all. Our house is very warm, & they would probably be safe 6 nights in 7 – but if one doesn’t do it always one is apt to forget on the cold nights – & I have lost one hyacinth – my only rose – & some other things already, besides by poor Calla Ethiopica which was just looking grand!!
       “. . . I only treated myself to 3 polyanthus [tazetta] narcissi – all Soleil d’Or – & put the 3 bulbs in one pot. They sent up 4 stems & I have counted 29 blossoms. I had one exquisite blush single hyacinth (name lost) which sent up a stem with 18 very large bells. The same bulb has now sent up a second stem with 9 bells quite as large as the others . . . . In the same pot was a single white faintly tinged with yellow (Rosseau) also very fine. The first stalk bore 18 bells & the 2d seems to have 30 – but I can hardly be certain yet – they are so closely packed. That makes 75 bells from the 2 bulbs in one pot. I only had 9 hyacinths – they have certainly fully repaid me. I never had such blooms as some of them, I think. I lost one – gave one away – & the other 7 have been a great enjoyment to me . . . .
       “I am proud of my bulbs.”
       Letter 76, Feb. 23, 1869, in Canada Home: Juliana Horatia Ewing’s Fredericton Letters, 1867-1869 (1999-2000 catalog)

Bulbs for Indoors from the BBG

        This inexpensive guide is the latest in the acclaimed new series of handbooks from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Authors Robert Hays and Janet Marinelli devote close to half the book to forcing hardy bulbs, with specifics on eighteen genera such as tulips and fritillaries. A bit more covers 37 tender bulbs such as crinums and Zephyranthes. A bibliography and source list complete this fine, clear introduction. (1997 catalog)

The Indoor Potted Bulb by Rob Proctor

        Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about forcing bulbs in a book that’s artful, wide-ranging (Rob has forced some surprising bulbs), and practical. Beginners in need of the basics and old hands looking for something new will both find it instructive and inspiring. And Rob loves antiques! (1996 catalog)

For articles on other topics, see our main Newsletter Archives page.