Forcing Bulbs for Indoor Bloom 
PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR SECURING A SUCCESSION OF BLOOM INDOORS THROUGH¬ 
OUT THE LONG WINTER MONTHS—WHAT BULBS ARE MOST EASILY FORCED AND HOW 
by Luke J. Doogue 
Photographs by Nathan R. Graves 
t 
VERY one should make an attempt to pot some flowering 
bulbs in the fall so as to have a few ilowers in the house at a 
time when they are very expensive in the stores. In the spring 
a few flowers are worth more than at any time in the year. There 
is absolutely nothing 
difficult about the 
work and even a very 
small child can grow 
bulb stuff with but 
little instruction. 
The range of varieties 
is very great and ’most 
every taste can be 
satisfied. 
The point to pin 
fast in the mind, be¬ 
fore starting in to 
grow bulbs, is that 
you must get good 
stock to start with. 
This is essential to 
success. Don’t quib¬ 
ble over a few cents 
in buying your bulbs, 
for you make nothing 
by it. If you want 
bulbs go to your 
seedsman and tell 
him what you want 
and then leave it to 
him to select the qual- 
ity for you. The 
price in the fall may 
seem high to you, but 
at flowering time in 
the spring you will 
wonder how he could 
sell the bulbs at so low a price. Don’t be allured by offers of 
bulbs at a ridiculously low price. Common sense ought to tell one 
that if the regular seed houses are asking much higher than the 
comparatively unknown advertiser, there must be something wrong 
somewhere. Have you ever bought hyacinths for one cent apiece? 
That’s what some offer them for in the fall. And tulips for four 
cents a dozen? Don’t get caught by this threadbare game. If 
you are willing to get good stuff let’s go on and say a few things 
about handling it, for the road will be smooth; you cannot fail. 
To get your plants flowering on time you can figure it in 
most cases by computing from the time you pot them, through 
the period of rest, about eight to ten weeks, and then it depends 
on just the conditions of heat they are put under before they come 
into flower in the house. There is no hard-and-fast rule, all 
depending on your method and time of handling. 
Let us take the hyacinths first. You can grow them in boxes, 
glasses, pans or pots. They will do well under any of these 
conditions. Start them as soon as possible after this issue appears. 
The large Dutch hyacinths are the most showy and the first-size 
bulbs throw wonderfully large flowers. 
The keynote to success in growing hyacinths is the formation 
of the roots. Roots take time to form and during the period of 
formation there must be no top growth; that is, the leaves must 
not be started. To effect the result the bulbs must be kept in a 
dark, cool place, either 
in the ground, buried, 
or in a cellar where it 
is cool or in a cold 
frame; in fact, any 
place where there will 
be neither light nor 
heat to induce top 
growth. If you 
should pot your bulbs 
and put them in the 
light the result would 
be all leaves and no 
flowers. Store your 
hyacinths from eight 
to ten weeks before 
bringing to the light. 
Don’t try to hurry the 
process, for you can¬ 
not do it safely. 
Potted hyacinths 
should have a pot large 
enough for them. A 
five-inch or a five- 
and-one-half-inch pot, 
according to the size 
of bulb, is about the 
propersize. Don’t get 
the pot too small. 
For pans use a twelve 
to fourteen-inch pan. 
This makes a show 
worth looking at. If 
so desired, hyacinths grown separately may be transferred 
from the pots into the glasses mentioned above. Many do this 
but it requires care not to damage the roots. Using white 
glasses, one can see the wonderful root system of the bulb. 
Use a sandy soil for potting. Put some drainage in the bottom 
of the pot, or pan, then a little charcoal, and on this the loam. 
After the weeks of preparation take them all out, or lengthen the 
period of bloom by taking them from storage at different times. 
The Roman hyacinths are suitable for cut flowers and force 
very easily. They are among the earliest flowering bulbs. For 
cutting, it is best to grow them in boxes. 
You can grow tulips for cutting purposes or for house decora¬ 
tion. For the former purpo e use boxes, for the latter, pans. 
An ordinary wooden box about five inches deep will do nicely. 
Bore holes in the bottom, put in drainage and fill almost to the 
top with loam. Put your bulbs in close together, give them a 
little water and store in a cool place. This is the most practical 
way to get flowers for cutting. Dig a hole in the ground and 
bury the bulbs, keeping them so covered that the frost will not 
get at them. Put litter and leaves over the top. This top will 
Just try a pan of tulips with a few bulbs of lily-of-the-valley scattered between them 
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