I embarked on my first attempt at forcing bulbs this winter, and figure I should make some notes to myself on how that worked out so I can remember in the fall. The most successful pots were the tulips, which came right up and bloomed their hearts out. They were chilled the longest, as they should have been, although it was quite by accident - somewhere around 22 weeks. Their success makes perverse sense, since they were supposed to be the most difficult bulbs of everything I planted.

I had a 50% success rate with the hyacinths, sort of. They were theoretically pre-chilled, and I put them in forcing vases in late December. 2 out of the 4 plants bloomed right around the time I came home from the hospital, which means it probably took around 7 weeks. The problem was that they bloomed almost directly out of the bulbs, which means next time I’ll have to figure out how to draw out the blooms with paper cones.

The daffodills were a total bust. Not even a stalk on them. They were supposedly the sure-fire idiot-proof plant.

The grape hyacinths that came in at 22 weeks are currently blooming, and are big and healthy but not quite as deep in color as I’d like. (That may have to do with the strain I planted, and of course I don’t remember which one it was.) The ones that came inside in late January, which would have been about 16 weeks, developed one measely bloom per pot. Next time, I’ll fill up the entire bonsai pot with these and keep them cold longer.

Regarding the garage, where I chill the pots: remember to buy rabbit wire and figure out a way to deal with the light leaks.

All in all, I’d glad I fiddled around with forcing this year. The blooms did help ease my late winter antsiness, and the process makes me feel like I haven’t totally lost touch with gardening. Next year will be tulips, grape hyacinths, and paperwhites, for sure. And in the meantime, Cristina’s got me thinking about orchids...