This past Sunday we decided to visit my mother. It was so wonderful to catch up with her and of course my girls absolutely LOVE their “G.G.” Putting all of my things down, like coats, babies, diaper bags, pack n’ plays (this list gets quite long when you have multiple children!) a fragrant and sweet smell confronted me. I looked around for a candle, air freshener, even a bouquet of flowers that would show me what was creating such a sweet and fragrant aroma. But there, sitting on her coffee table, were live blue hyacinth flowers sitting on a bed of marbles!! Bulbs and all! How on earth could they bloom and grow without soil? I had so many questions for momma. How did she do that? Was it easy and could I do it at home, too? How long do they bloom and when do you need to plant them? Well, being an avid gardener and an arboretum employee, she knows absolutely everything about gardening. Everything the flower needs to bloom and grow is in its bulb. It doesn’t necessarily need soil to grow and placing them in just a little bit of water (just enough to touch the very bottom of the bulb) will force it to bloom. Mom’s blue hyacinths were perfuming the entire room. According to the savygardener.com, “the term forcing refers to inducing a plant to produce its shoot, leaf, and flower ahead of its natural schedule and out of its natural environment. To force hardy bulbs you need to mimic and compress the process the plant would undergo outdoors in the garden.”
So the next step I took was telling all of this to my husband. “I want to do this!” Why? Because it brings a bit of spring cheer into your house and the incomparable fragrance of fresh blooms without artificial chemical perfumes will fill the air. So we left my mother’s house and headed for Walmart. I couldn’t find any blue hyacinth like mom had, but they did have Peruvian Daffodils and Daffodils are definitely one of my favorite flowers for their bright cheerfulness and their oh so sweet fragrance.
If anyone else wants to do this just ask someone you know who is great at gardening and who has a knowledge of growing plants(one of the many things I want to learn) or of course, there is Google. I look forward to getting started and forcing my Peruvian Daffodils to bloom and so that in about two weeks we will be enjoying the fragrance of spring!
All these beauties need is to be kept slightly moist. Most people make the mistake of over watering and then wonder why their plant dies. Do we like to completely saturate ourselves by drinking? Neither do plants! Most are kept completely happy with ‘just enough’ water. Mom told me to only let the water ‘just barely’ touch the bottom of the bulb or roots. She even said it would be OK to let them get a little dry because even the evaporating water is enough to keep these babies content. I’m going to fill a shallow glass bowl with river rocks and display my bulbs/soon-to-be blooms resting on top. Now the waiting begins…just two weeks and then you have days and days worth of fresh flowers!!
in napotnik style 