Winter days are the waiting days, a time to settle down and burrow in. The afternoons slip quickly into darkness; quiet evenings are spent beside the fire snuggled under a comfy blanket with a good book. When winter hibernation brings on cabin fever, you can easily brighten up the place by bringing spring indoors. Take a walk in your yard to gather bare branches; bring them indoors, give them water and a quiet place to rest and watch them burst into bloom.
Think about it: winter is quiet, spring is a riot. But how does the natural world move from silence to symphony without jolting us right out of our seats? Much to our pleasure, it moves slowly and drops plenty of clues. By recognizing the harbingers of spring you can ease those winter doldrums. Forcing branches is not as heavy-handed as it sounds. What actually happens is closer to the gentle art of persuasion. To force a branch, you must cut it, bring it indoors and provide it with copious amounts of water and the warmth that it would expect in spring.
The easiest branches to force are those that are early-season bloomers. Bright-red, twiggy quince, graceful white shad, and fragrant yellow witch hazel bloom are the earliest bloomers. Fruits such as apple, pear, cherry and crabapple will slowly bloom in colors from cream to deep rose. Highbush huckleberry opens tiny, pale, vase-shape flowers among intricate tangles of delicate twigs and spicebush reveals miniature flowers with a pleasantly spicy fragrance.
Leaves and pussy willow catkins may also be forced. Sugar maple produces fancy chartreuse tassels and red maple little red fireworks, both of which mix beautifully with more floriferous branches. A large lateral branch of moosewood (usually considered a weed tree) will spend weeks unfolding enormous leaves like a magician pulling green hankies out of midair.
For forcing any of the above branches to bloom, the technique is simple. Choose your branches and cut the ends on a slant with sharp shears. Immediately plunge the bare twigs into tepid water, preferably in a container or jar that will hold them upright. Apple, cherry, quince, forsythia, spicebush, flowering dogwood, huckleberry and other branches that bear small flowers may be cut very early. Branches bearing larger flowers like the marvelous magnolia should be left outside on their shrubs until the buds are fat and well-developed. When you cut branches from fruit trees, be sure to get the fat, wrinkly flowering buds as opposed to the smooth, pointy vegetative buds. The vegetative buds will only produce leaves.
During the slow coaxing period, which may take anywhere from a week to a month, keep the water in the containers clean and at least three inches high. A flower preservative* will help prolong the life of the branches. If your home is arid and hot, mist your arrangements often and place them in a partially shaded, cool location, fifty-eight degrees is ideal.
Finally, when the buds show color, transfer the branches into attractive vases that can hold an ample water supply and move the branches to a lighted room. Do not place them in direct sunlight. To prolong their beauty, display the arrangements in a cool location, particularly during the evening. The symphony of color will brighten the room and your spirits!
*Flower preservative: Mix 2 tablespoons each of white vinegar and sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of household chlorine bleach with one quart of water.