Forcing Bulbs in August

August 18th 2010

Welcome to my site about forcing spring bulbs. I especially love forcing bulbs in water, in rooting vases. Forcing bulbs for Christmas is the "holy grail" of bulb forcing so it's important to start early. I bought some bulbs this week at a garden centre. I didn't know they would be on sale yet but they were so I am excited to get started. I also wanted to expand my repetoire to include crocus and tulips. I have forced crocus in pots before but wanted to force crocus in water in a vase and establish once and for all if it works or not. I also wanted to try forcing tulips in water which is already proving challenging as only one of my hyacinth vases has a small enough opening to hold the smaller tulip bulb. This makes me wonder, is it possible to force tulips in water? Has it been done extensively? Already I can say no as I have never seen a tulip forcing vase and hyacinth vases are too big and crocus too small so what did/do people use?

How to force spring bulbs for Christmas

Crocus and Tulips, using unprepared bulbs

n.b. Hyacinths will be started in September when the prepared bulbs arrive from the supplier

Step 1.   I bought some bulb fibre a couple weeks ago when I first saw it for sale. Last year my crocus pots were infested with some tiny bugs when I didn't use proper bulb fibre so this year I'm using the right medium. I got my crocus vases out of the cellar and my pots ready.
Step 2.   I want to make sure the bulbs have good drainage so I'm putting in a good layer of gravel.
Step 3. After the gravel I filled the pots with bulb fibre, put the bulbs on top and watered them. I only have one vase that will hold a tulip bulb. I will try to find more.
Step 4.   I top-dressed the pots with more gravel and one with more aesthetic bits of broken pottery I picked up on the Thames bank. I've seen this in magazines and web sites.
Step 5. I put all the pots and vases into the spare fridge in the cellar. I have read varying recommendations for the length of time for the cool dark period, from 10 to 17 weeks. It's 15 weeks until December 1st which is probably the latest date to bring bulbs into the light if they are to bloom for Christmas so I'm hoping that 15 weeks will be sufficient. I also put in some of the unplanted bulbs which I will plant in 6 weeks, then I can compare to see which bulbs perform better.

This is my site about antique hyacinth vases. For those new to the subject, they are vases which hold a hyacinth bulb above water so that the hyacinth can be grown indoors, or "forced" into flower, before their normal flowering time outside. If started early enough and if the bulbs are properly prepared, the hyacinths can be forced into flower for Christmas. Hyacinth vases were first used in the Georgian period but became very popular in Victorian times. They have enjoyed variations in popularity ever since.

Please see http://www.hyacinthvases.org.uk for the old site until the content is transferred here.