Grow bulbs for indoor flowering in 4 easy steps

Some of your favourite spring blooms can be grown indoors months ahead of time. Here's the easiest way to "force" flowers and get a jump on the growing season.

• Bulb catalogues are invaluable for choosing cultivars that do best indoors.
• Among the most popular spring-flowering bulbs for indoor use are hyacinths, crocuses, daffodils and other narcissi, irises and tulips. Most require storage for 10 to 13 weeks or more at temperatures of 4°C or less before forcing.
• Good trumpet daffodils are 'Dutch Master,' 'Mount Hood' and 'Salome.' Fragrant, small-flowered 'Paperwhite' and 'Soleil d'Or' need no cold treatment.
• Among the tulips, the Early Singles, Triumphs, and some Darwin Hybrids and Parrots are easiest to force.
• Also popular are large-flowered Dutch hyacinths, and crocuses such as 'Blue Pearl,' 'Remembrance' and 'Pickwick'.

• There are many different potting mixtures available or you can make your own. Just mix equal parts of sifted garden soil, sifted compost and pulverized peat moss.
• Heavy clay soil can be lightened by adding sand and vermiculite.
• Adding fertilizer isn't necessary in order to obtain good bloom.

• Choose pots or bulb containers with drainage holes. That way, you'll be able to check for evidence of root growth later on.
• Clay or plastic containers can be used. But beware: tall species, such as tulips and narcissi, tend to get top-heavy and fall over when growing in plastic pots.
• Because plastic pots aren't porous, they don't dry out as quickly as clay pots, something to keep in mind when watering.

• Start by covering drainage holes with pebbles or shards of clay pots to stop the soil blocking them. Then, put a layer of moist potting mixture into the pot.
• The amount of soil you use depends on the size of the container and bulbs. When set in place, the tops of the bulbs should be about even with, or slightly above, the top of the pot.
• Place bulbs touching each other, putting in as many bulbs as the pot can hold.
• Large bulbs can be planted singly in 8 to 10 centimetre (3 1/4 to 4 inch) pots, but they're more effective when several are set close together in bigger pots.
• With tulips, the first leaf emerging from the bulb folds out on the flat side of the bulb.
• For a more symmetrical display, place each bulb with its flat side facing out from the pot's centre.
• Finish filling the pot. Level the soil about one centimetre below the pot's rim.
• Plant only one kind of bulb in a pot. Label each container, indicating the kind and variety of the bulb and the date. Water well.

You can grow many hardy bulbs indoors, often weeks or months earlier than if they were outside. If you pot them in early fall and allow sufficient time in cool conditions for root growth, you can then "force" flowers by placing pots in a warm room.