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How To Force Bulbs for Winter Cheer

How to Force Bulbs for Winter Cheer Featured Image
So many beautiful bulbs can be easily forced indoors. (photo by Jessie Keith)

Daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips in winter? For many of us, this would seem the stuff of fantasy, absent a visit to the florist. Yet, with only a modest investment of money, time, and effort, even a beginning gardener can know the joy of bringing these and other spring bulbs into bloom during the coldest and darkest days of the year. Forcing bulbs is that easy.

Flower bulbs are little marvels. Those that grow in cold climates usually leaf and flower in spring, retreating from summer through winter to a tiny condensed underground storage organ known as a true bulb, corm, tuber or rhizome (we’ll just call them all bulbs here). Give them a warm summer followed by 2 or 3 months of chilly temperatures and moist soil, and they’re primed to grow and flower as soon as temperatures turn milder. By providing these cues, along with a nice pot, we can have them up and blooming indoors weeks (even months) before their outdoor kin make their appearances.

Bulb Forcing Pots and Mix

Hyacinth and daffodil bulbs in baskets
Hyacinth and daffodil bulbs can both be forced in winter.

So what does it take to stage this little miracle? Aside from the bulbs themselves (which we’ll get to in a minute), you’ll need a container, some potting soil and a chilly place for the bulbs to cool their heels. Containers of various sorts and sizes will do fine, but wide shallow pots (sometimes known as “bulb pans”) are ideal. Look for something in the 6- to 8-inch-wide and 4- to 5-inch deep range. Clay pots look especially nice and have the added advantage of not tipping as easily as plastic ones.

I recommend a light, well-drained, quality potting mix such as Fafard Professional Potting Mix, which is also perfect for bulbs and contains less added fertilizer. A fertilizer-enriched mix is not necessary unless you’re planning to relocate the bulbs to the garden after they’ve bloomed.
Now for the stars of your planting projects: your plants!

Bulbs for Forcing

Amaryllis by the window
Amaryllis are some of the most common bulbs to be forced.

Many bulbs “force” well. Perhaps the most rewarding are those that smell as nice as they look. Among these are numerous daffodils, including Narcissus tazetta hybrids like ‘Geranium’ and ‘Cragford’, the delightfully double-flowered ‘Cheerfulness’ and ‘Yellow Cheerfulness’ and ‘Sundial’ and other hybrids of N. jonquilla. Netted irises (Iris reticulata and hybrids) also offer beautiful flowers and a heady scent, as do many grape hyacinths and some tulips and crocuses. And of course, there’s the bulb that practically defines floral fragrance – the hyacinth. Other bulbs worth trying include Grecian windflower (Anemone blanda), Siberian squill (Scilla siberica) and fumewort (Corydalis solida).

Assemble all your materials in early to late fall (either on a potting table or just a kitchen counter festooned with newspaper) and you’re ready to go!

How to Force Bulbs

Two amaryllis sprouts in pots
Two amaryllis sprouts in the pots

Start by filling your container with enough slightly moistened potting mix so that the tips of the bulbs will be an inch or so below the container’s rim when set on the soil’s surface (large bulbs such as hybrid daffodils can be planted with their noses above rim level). Then place your bulbs on the soil, spaced closely but not touching. Fill the container to just below the rim with more potting mix, water until the drainage holes begin to drip, then move the container to a dark location where temperatures will remain above freezing but well below the comfort range of shirt-sleeved humans (40 degrees F is just right). An attic or attached garage may be suitable, but keep in mind that bulb-loving critters might be afoot. If no other place is available, the refrigerator will do nicely, as long as the bulbs don’t have overripe fruit as fridge-mates. Refrigerated containers are best kept in paper bags, to retard drying. Water the containers lightly if the top layer of soil dries.

And now you wait. At about 7 or 8 weeks, start checking for signs of root development. When roots are evident at drainage holes, or if bulbs offer significant resistance if gently twisted or tugged, your bulbs are ready to party. (The appearance topside of leaves or fat buds is a further sign that flowers are in the offing.)

Fafard Professional Potting Mix pack

So let the show begin: Bring your container into a cool, shady room for a few days, to acclimate the prepped bulbs to “spring.” Then move it to a sunny – but not too warm – niche, and watch the miracle happen. Most bulbs will flower 2-4 weeks after coming into the light. Water when the soil surface dries.

After they bloom, either discard them or plant them in the garden once the soil becomes workable. (If you replant them in your outdoor beds, just be patient: Your transplanted bulbs will likely be bloomless for a year or two in the garden before they flower again.)

What better antidote for winter than a windowsill brimming with brightly blooming bulbs? You might even find yourself in the market for a spare refrigerator.

Variegated Evergreens for Winter Landscaping

Variegated Evergreens for Winter Landscaping Featured Image

False holly ‘Goshiki’ has a spectacular winter color! (photo by Jessie Keith)

Daylight starts its annual return with the Winter Solstice, but cold gray days continue well into the New Year. Gardens, shorn of flowers and deciduous leaves, are stark. In winter, evergreens make all the difference. And variegated varieties, their leaves edged, striped or splashed in contrasting tones, add zest and color to the landscape. With choice specimens available in many sizes and shapes, the only constant is variety.

Variegated Holly

English holly
English holly ‘Argenteomarginata’ has bright white edges.

English holly (Ilex aquifolia), brightens landscapes and winter arrangements with glossy green leaves and vibrant red berries on female plants. Variegated varieties include ‘Argenteomarginata’, with white leaf edges and ‘Aureomarginata’, featuring yellow borders. Both can be grown as large shrubs or small trees, reaching up to 20 feet tall and 12 feet wide, with a pyramidal habit. Variegated English holly thrives in full sun to light shade. Nearby male varieties provide necessary pollination for female plants.

‘Golden King’ is one such male. It is an English holly hybrid (Ilex x altaclerensis) that features slightly more rounded leaves than its parent and golden variegation on the leaf edges. Developed at England’s Highclere Castle, home to TV’s “Downton Abbey”, it grows up to 24 feet tall and 12 feet wide.

Variegated Winter Daphne

Winter Daphne
Variegated winter daphnes bloom in late winter or early spring.

Winter or fragrant daphne (Daphne odora) is aptly named. The fragrant flowers appear very early—in late winter or early spring. With leathery leaves and a mounding habit, shade-tolerant winter daphne makes a good hedging or specimen plant, especially in alkaline soil. Tempting variegated varieties include ‘Aureomarginata’, with yellow leaf margins, ‘Rubra Variegata’, featuring rosy-pink flowers and white-edged foliage, and ‘Variegata’ with soft pink blooms and bright yellow leaf margins.

Variegated False Holly

It’s easy to mistake false holly or holly olive (Osmanthus heterophyllus) for the real thing. The dense, spiny leaves resemble those of English holly, though the leaves are smaller and denser, and false holly does not produce its namesake’s bright red fruits. Osmanthus is a densely-leafed, upright shrub that grows into an oval shape and usually tops out at 8 to 10 feet tall and wide. It can also be clipped into standard form.

Variegated false hollies abound, including ‘Aureomarginata’, with yellow leaf edges, the eye-catching ‘Goshiki’, bearing foliage marked with flecks of gold, cream and green, and ‘Kembu’, featuring white leaf margins and flecks, and ‘Variegatus’, with white-edged leaves.

Variegated Euonymus

Variegated Wintercreeper
Variegated wintercreeper is one of the easiest in the group to grow.

The large euonymus genus contains many variegated evergreens. Wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei) is one of them. Some of the best-known varieties are low-growers, less than 12 inches tall, with small, dark green or blue-green leaves. With its spreading habit and adaptability to varying light situations, wintercreeper works as a groundcover, rock garden subject, low wall cover, or erosion controller. Among the many variegated varieties are ‘Emerald ‘n Gold’, with yellow leaf margins on leaves that turn pinkish in winter, the taller ‘Gold Splash’, which grows to 3 feet tall and wide, ‘Moonshadow’, with green-edged yellow leaves, ‘Silver Queen’, featuring yellow margins that age to white, and ‘Sunshine’ with its gray-green leaves edged in gold.

Fafard Ultra Outdoor Planting Mix pack

Use wintercreeper carefully. It has been reported as invasive in some areas. One way to keep it in check is to grow it in large pots and trim as necessary. (It can take very heavy pruning so shear and shape it at will.) Give containerized wintercreeper a good start by using a quality potting mix, like Fafard Ultra Outdoor Planting Mix.

Japanese Euonymus (Euonymus japonicus) is a shrubby plant, topping out at 10 to 15 feet tall and half as wide. Like most euonymus, the species bears shiny green, ovoid leaves. Variegated varieties of this rather formal hedging plant include ‘Albomarginatus’ and ‘Aureomarginatus’, bearing white and gold leaf edges respectively. ‘Latifolius Albomarginatus’ also features leaves with white margins, but has broader leaves than ‘Albomarginatus’ and gray-green leaf centers.

Variegated Spotted Laurel

Spotted Laurel 'Variegata'
The spotted laurel ‘Variegata’ is a gold-flecked female variety, originally introduced in 1783.

Shade-loving spotted laurel (Aucuba japonica) is easy to spot. The hardy plants, often used for hedging, grow up to 10 feet tall, with a nearly equal spread. Spotted laurel leaves are somewhat leathery and up to 8 inches long. Purple spring flowers are an added bonus, giving way to red fall fruits on female plants. ‘Mr. Goldstrike’, a male plant that can serve as a pollinator for female spotted laurels, is dramatic and generously dappled with golden speckles. ‘Variegata’ is a gold-flecked female variety, originally introduced in 1783 and known as the “gold dust plant.” Another notable spotted laurel is ‘Goldieana’, featuring a solid splotch of gold on each long, green leaf.

Evergreens provide the horticultural music in quiet winter gardens. Variegation makes that music swing.

Holiday Cooking with Fresh Ginger

Gingerbread cookies
Fresh ginger makes gingerbread cookies taste even better!

Whether you cook something sweet or savory, fresh ginger (Zingiber officinale) has a traditional place at the holiday table. Its bright, spicy flavor adds something special to cookies, cakes, and festive starters that will encourage family and friends to keep coming back for more. The key is choosing the freshest roots from the store or (even better) your own potted ginger plant.

Growing Ginger

Ginger is wonderfully easy to grow as a potted houseplant, if kept in a sunny window. Just provide it with a well-drained pot of fertile Fafard Professional Potting Mix, water moderately, feed monthly with an all-purpose water soluble fertilizer and you’ll be set. If planting ginger root for the first time, be sure to plant it with its horn-like buds facing upwards and sink it 1-2” below the soil’s surface. Store-bought roots will work very well or you can purchase plants from retail greenhouses like Logee’s. One choice cultivated variety is the Javanese ‘Sunthi’, which has smaller, more pungent roots, but it is hard to find in commerce.
Starting with the good stuff always makes recipes taste better, so be sure to go for the firmest, nicest ginger roots for your holiday cooking. Here are several fresh ginger recipes that will make the best use of them:

Lemon glazed cake
Tart lemon glaze makes this moist, seasonal cake taste extra good.

Fresh Ginger Cake with Lemon Glaze                

This oil-based cake is very flavorful and moist. The addition of tart lemon glaze makes it even more decadent. Begin by buttering and flouring a bread pan and heating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. All wet ingredients should be at room temperature.
Wet Ingredients
2 large eggs (room temperature)
¾ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup hot water
¾ cup granulated sugar
Dry Ingredients
2 cups cake flour
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon Kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ cup packed, macerated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Glaze
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
½ cup powdered sugar
Directions
Combine all of the dry ingredients (except the sugar) in a sieve over a large mixing bowl and sift the ingredients. Next, add all the wet ingredients, except the ginger, lemon zest, and eggs, to another large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth and light.
Combine the molasses mixture to the dry ingredients and fold in the ginger and eggs, using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, until fully combined. Then transfer the batter to the baking pan. The cake should be baked for around 45 minutes.
Test the cake with a bamboo skewer and make sure it comes up clean before removing the cake. Before the cake cools, whisk the glaze ingredients together, skewer holes across the top of the cake and pour the glaze over the top—allowing it to sink into the cake and harden. Once cool, take a knife along the cake edges and remove the cake from the pan.

Gingerbread with Fresh Orange Zest

This fresh gingerbread tastes extra good with the addition of orange zest.
Crisp gingerbread ready for decorating!

For years I sought out the best gingerbread recipe and finally settled on a conglomerate of recipes gathered from a variety of places.
Wet Ingredients
¾ cup salted butter
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup dark molasses (not black strap!)
¼ cup warm water
1 tablespoon fresh crushed ginger
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
Dry Ingredients
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
A healthy pinch of salt
3 ¼ cups sifted flour
Directions
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy then mix in the molasses and water. Sift the dry ingredients then add them to the wet until fully combined (be sure not to over mix).
Flour your hands and pull the dough together into a flattened ball and chill for at least 12 hours. Before you roll the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Flour up a board and pin and cut your dough in two. Roll out the dough to around 1/4 inch thickness. Be sure to keep the board and pin floured to stop the dough from sticking.
Cut out your shapes and reroll any excess dough, though try not to overwork it as this results in tough cookies. Place the rolled cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for eight to ten minutes, depending on how large or thick your cookies are. The less baked, the chewier the cookie. Allow the cookies to cool before decorating. Royal icing is the best for decorating and gel food coloring provides the deepest colors.

Roasted Eggplant Dip with Ginger

This yummy fresh eggplant dip is a little smoky and a little spicy.This creamy, nutty, gingery eggplant dip tastes great with pita, crackers, and fresh vegetable crudités.
Ingredients
1 large, fresh Italian eggplant
3 tablespoons almond butter
1 tablespoon full fat Greek yogurt
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons macerated ginger
1 clove finely minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground fennel seed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon flatleaf Italian parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the top of the eggplant, cut it in half and place it flat side down on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Roast it until it is completely soft. This should take around 45 minutes. Once cooked, allow the eggplant to cool. Scoop out the soft eggplant and add it to a food processor. Briefly heat the coriander, cumin, and fennel seed in a heated pan with two teaspoons of olive oil—a minute or two should be enough. Add all of the ingredients to the food processor and pulse the dip until smooth—adding salt and pepper to taste.
This dip tastes best if the flavors are allowed to marry for sein the refrigerator. Bring it to room temperature before serving.