Christie’s Blog

Mid-March 2025

‘Forcing’ Forsythia

How to get early blooms off an early Spring bloomer.

When I was a little girl living in Chicago with my family in the early 60’s, I remember my mother telling me to follow her, “We’re going to cut some forsythia and force it.”

I would get on my warm boots, hat and anything else needed for a Chicago winter, and follow her through inches of snow to the corner of our garage-apartment.  Here is where unruly plants like forsythia, flowering quince and rhubarb grew. We cut handfuls of bare looking stems with no leaves and no flowers on them. We would go back to the kitchen where Mom would pull out a hammer and smash the stems ends.“That helps them open up sooner, ”she’d say.

Next she would pull down a large vase , fill it with water and tell me to arrange the stems.  Onto the hallway table they would go, and in few days we would have blooms of yellow inside,  while outside the bare looking plant still had snow on it.

Let me offer the process of forcing shrubs in a more formal way.

-Early spring bloomers set buds in the fall so you are not cutting off any branches that will bloom in the summer.

-Branches are best cut in late February or early March.

-Cut each branch about one foot long.

-Take the opportunity to take off branches growing toward the center of the plant  and/or any crossover branches.

– Slice the base stems with your pruners to allow more space for the plant to soak up water and hydrate.

( I think my Mom enjoyed using a hammer, but pruners work fine.)

– Soak the forsythia branches in a bucket of water for a few hours.

-You can also cover them with plastic and put them in a cool space to allow the buds to pop a little more.

– Don’t let the stems dry out or the whole branch will die.

-Wait about a week and you should have flowers. The closer you wait to their actual bloom time outside,  the less time you have to wait for them to bloom inside.

-Don’t put the forced branches in a sunny window or a really warm spot in your house because they won’t last very long.

Other plants you can force to get early blooms inside are quince, spirea ( shown below) and viburnum. With the cooling temperatures we have been having this weekend, and if your forsythia has not bloomed, its not too late to give it a try.

Happy Early Spring! More blooms are coming soon!

Christie lives in Manakin Sabot , Virginia where she manages a 3 acre garden. Her blogs are written from her 35 years as private and professional gardener .