Spring Preview: How to Force Flowering Branches to Bloom Indoors

Branches bloom indoors. A brief context to set expectations.

Branches bloom indoors: Quick notes

You’re getting impatient for spring to arrive. You’ve had enough of winter. Mother Nature, however, is on her own schedule. It varies from year to year and she won’t tell you if she decides to change things up with a late-season cold snap. Because she can and she will. Don’t mess with Mother Nature. But you can go behind her back—you can jump-start spring by forcing flowering branches to bloom indoors.

Here’s how.

Forcing Branches Indoors

Above: Here’s what a cut cherry blossom branch looks like ten days after it was first brought indoors. Photograph by Justine Hand for Gardenista, from Test Drive: Which Cut Flowers Last Longest?

Cut flowering branches are long-lasting statement makers, suitable for any room of the house. A huge spray of apple blossoms in a large vase can be a focal point on your dining table, and a single magnolia bloom in a hand-me down porcelain cup and saucer on the kitchen counter can transport you back to your childhood.

Above: White cherry blossoms purchased from a flower shop and brought home for a DIY arrangement. Photograph by Erin Boyle, from DIY: The Magical Powers of White Cherry Blossoms.

To force branches indoors, make sure your pruning clippers are clean and sharp. Remember, you are not just picking a few branches for forcing, you are pruning the tree or shrub. If you only want a few branches, take them from inconspicuous areas and stay away from the larger main branches.

Above: If you’re using a bowl-shaped vessel for your flowering branches (pictured are sweet almond branches), insert floral netting, chicken wire, or even a plastic berry box turned upside down for stability. Photograph by Leslie Santarina for Gardenista, from Flower Arrangements 101: A Crash Course for Easy and Elegant Florals.

Once inside, place them in a clean vase filled with fresh water. Try not to place any blooms below the water level if possible and keep the vase out of direct sunlight and away from heat sources. Slicing or scoring the base of the branches will help the branches to take up more water and make them last longer. Change the water every few days.

Above: Sunny forsythia. Photograph by The_Moog via Flickr.

One of the easiest flowers to force is forsythia. It’s as easy as cutting a few branches off the bush, bringing them inside and placing them in water. That’s it. Within a week, you’ll have happy sunny yellow flowers perking up your kitchen table.

If you’re lucky enough to have a pussy willow, you can do the same and have those furry little pussy toes and their delicate tiny yellow flowers in about two weeks.

A short mention of Branches bloom indoors helps readers follow the flow.

Above: Floral designer Louesa Roebuck placed magnolias in a vase by Berkeley potter Jared Nelson. Photograph by Jay Carroll of One Trip Pass, from DIY: Ikebana Arrangement with Magnolias.