Before you begin forcing the bulbs, source a suitable container, pot or vase. You can even grow single hyacinth bulbs in water without soil using a small glass bulb vase or in a simple teacup. Charity shops and street markets, such as Portobello Road Market in London, are excellent for sourcing bargain soup tureens and old china for planting bulbs.
Building up a variety of large and small, ceramic and metal jugs, salad bowls and cups will add to the beauty of your arrangement and help create a dynamic display.
An important point to remember when you’re using containers that don’t have drainage holes is that bulbs don’t like sitting in water with wet feet, so only water once a week when the soil is dry to avoid rot.
If your container will allow it, always try to add small drainage holes using a simple electric drill. Leave a little space at the top of the pot to enable easy watering.
With hundreds of winter bulbs to choose from, The Land Gardeners recommend the following bulbs for forcing.
- Hyacinths (Hyacinthus)
- Grape hyacinths (Muscari)
- Miniature blue irises (Iris reticulata ‘Harmony)
- Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum)
- Paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus)
- Crocuses will all provide beautiful displays of cut flowers throughout winter.
Tip: If you are buying hyacinth bulbs be sure to get them ‘pre-chilled’ or ‘prepared’. These tend to flower much earlier than ‘unprepared’ hyacinths. Alternatively, you can prepare ordinary hyacinth bulbs yourself by putting them in a paper bag in the fridge for four to six weeks.
To grow healthy plants in smaller containers, your selected bulbs will benefit from additional nutrients to help them complete their forced growing cycle. The Land Gardeners suggest adding their climate compost inoculum to the soil when planting the bulbs. Abundant in naturally occurring soil microbes, using just a pinch of this inoculum in the soil will create undeniably stronger, healthier, more resilient plants.
Once you have planted your bulbs, place them somewhere dark and cool for a few weeks, and then bring them inside into the light and warmth on a windowsill or a greenhouse, above 15C, about 6 weeks before
