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| Photo Credit: Lynn Means |
| Forced forsythia branches capture the essence of spring – indoors. |
When winter refuses to leave, you can chase away the blues with a host of flowers from your own garden – even before they’re ready to bloom outside! How? By taking cuttings from your spring-blooming trees and shrubs. Months before they’re due to bloom, you can fool (or force) these branches into flowering indoors for beautiful bouquets that last and last. It’s easy, fun and “foolproof.”
Good candidates for early blooming branches include woody shrubs like Forsythia, Rhododendron (including azaleas), beautybush (Kolkwitzia amabilis), flowering quince (Chaenomeles), American pussy willow (Salix discolor), redbud (Cercis) and spirea (Spiraea). Fruit trees like cherry, pear and apple are also ideal, as well as traditional favorites like magnolias and dogwoods (Cornus). Take a walk around your winter landscape to see which varieties you’d like to try – and don’t hesitate to pick more than one. (I like to choose border forsythia, also known as Forsythia x intermedia, which has graceful branches that fountain at a long angle. It’s an early bloomer that makes stunning floral arrangements.) As you size up your possibilities, look for choice limbs with numerous flower buds. (It’s easy to tell the difference between flower buds and leaf buds because the flower buds will be plump, swollen and slightly larger.) When you’ve found some good candidates, use your pruning shears to cut the branches flush with a main branch at a slight angle. The cut branches should be at least 12 inches long. Take at least a dozen or more cuttings from each plant so you’ve got enough to fill several good-sized vases. Shrub/Tree | When to Cut | Weeks to Bloom | Forsythia
| Mid-January | 1-3
| Cherry | Early February | 2-4
| Rhododendron/Azalea | Late February | 4-6 | Magnolia | Early March | 3-5
| Redbud | Early March | 2-3
| Dogwood | Mid-March | 2-3 |
| | Chart Credit: Lynn Means | | Here’s a simple guide to help you determine what trees and shrubs to cut when, as well as how long it should take before your forced blooms appear. (Note: This chart matches bloom times here in North Carolina. Depending on where you live in the country, you’ll need to add or subtract anywhere from 1-3 weeks to the cutting time.) |
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