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Now is the perfect time to give yourself an early glimpse of the spring to come. Here’s how to force forsythia branches and enjoy their blooms inside your home as you await spring’s arrival.
I always love it when the forsythia starts to bloom. They’re the first flowering shrubs to really show some color in the spring, and they just bring so much hope with them. We have two big forsythia bushes right outside our living room windows, and we can always see their cheery yellow flowers peeking in during the early-spring weeks. The other wonderful thing about forsythia is that they’re extra easy to force, so you can enjoy their showy blossom branches right when you need them most in the dead of winter when everything is still dormant. Today, I thought it might be fun and helpful to share how to force forsythia if you feel like you could use a little bit of spring color in your home and in your life right now.
More spring home inspiration: 6 Ways That Cleaning Your Home This Spring Can Make You Happier and Healthier
What is Forcing?
Forcing is basically the practice of tricking ornamental spring-blooming branches into thinking spring has arrived by bringing them into your house where it’s warm. Any deciduous shrub that blooms before it puts out leaves is considered a great candidate for forcing, but I’ve even forced branches in the past just for their bright, fresh green foliage at Eastertime, like these dwarf lilac branches.
Forcing branches before the growing season officially begins is a common horticultural practice and won’t affect plant health in any way, and it may even help you keep your shrubs looking nicely pruned this year.
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When is the Best Time to Force Forsythia?
Once it’s gotten cold enough outside to freeze for a few weeks, the forsythia will typically feel like they’ve had their winter and will be ready to bloom when spring temperatures arrive. You can try it as early as mid-January if you want to, but most people force branches around the end of February or March, just a few weeks before spring. It usually still feels like winter here at that point, but I’m happy to brighten my home a bit as I wait for the flowers outside to emerge.
We’re having an extra chilly, icy winter this year, and I think I’m ready for some spring blossoms a bit earlier this year.
How to Force Forsythia Branches to Bloom Early
Cut and Prepare
Head out to your forsythia and cut an armful of branches that are at least 12″ long and that have plenty of fat flower buds on them. You can use this as an early pruning session, so cut away any that are growing in weird directions or rubbing against any other branches.
Bring the branches inside and soak them in your bathtub or a big sink in room temperature water overnight, keeping them fully submerged. Watering them this way gives them a really good soaking and a bit of a head start.
A must-try trick if you love to decorate with spring flowers: How to Prevent Cut Lilacs From Drooping
The Greenhouse Stage
After the soaking step is done, place your branches in a bucket of warm water and tent them with a plastic bag. Leave them in a cooler room where the temperature is somewhere around 60 degrees. Light requirements aren’t a big deal at this stage, so any cool basement or storage area will do. Our back stairwell is pretty much perfect right now because the walls are half ripped open and the door we still have there is a bit drafty. So that worked out well for this year!
Check your branches every few days, give them fresh water, and mist the buds. When you see the buds start to get longer and show some color, you’re ready to move them to a vase to display!
The Vase Stage
Move your branches into the vase that you intend to display them in and give them fresh water. Place the vase in a bright, warm part of the house, and enjoy watching the forsythia bloom!
If you time it just right, you can have forsythia blooming on your table week after week until spring!
Do you force Forsythia branches? What other favorites have you found for forcing at this time of year?
The secret to enjoying a late-spring favorite: How to Get Ants Off Cut Peonies
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.