Bulbs - Forcing (5255)

Forcing allows gardeners to give spring an early start. Starting blooms indoors over the winter months can fill your home with fragrance, freshness, and bright colors-just when you need it most.

Forcing is a term used to describe the process of manipulating a plant's growing environment, allowing it to bloom earlier than usual. All hardy bulbs require a cold or chilling period and then an increase in temperature in order to bloom. A bulb planted outside in the fall and winter gets this cold period naturally and has to wait for warmer spring temperatures to bloom. The forcing process mimics the outdoor winter climate, but brings it into warmer temperatures before nature is able to provide it. This premature dose of warm weather is what "forces" the blooms to emerge earlier than naturally possible.

For more information, please see this Penn State Cooperative Extension page

Penn State Horticulture Department

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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