Coercing Paper Whites

There are just some phrases in the English language that rub me wrong. The phrase 'forcing bulbs' is one I just don't care for (maybe my inner pacifist?). I know I'm strange, so I have decided to call it 'bulb coercing'...which to me is much friendlier.

I don't have much luck with indoor plants so hopefully, this project will turn out. I know I'm late doing this, it should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but inspiration just hit me, so while recovering from chemo, I decided this was a project I could complete without too much effort.

I found the bulbs at Home Depot, along with the marble chips from the lawn and garden area.The bulbs had already started growing a little, so I wanted to get this project going right away and hopefully they will bloom by Christmas. I prepared the bulbs by removing the 'onion skins', just to keep things tidy. The research I did revealed it was just fine to do this, it doesn't hurt the growing process at all.

Select containers. I selected some milk glass containers out of my collection, but gosh, you can do this in any container you wish, whatever style...

Place the marble chips in the bowl/container. I suppose you can use any sort of pebbles, rocks, marbles, or even gems for this...but I like the look of the marble and the hint of grey. Also, it was very inexpensive for a large bag (I rinsed the chips first too).

Place the bulb, roots down, in the marble chips...it's easy to tell which end is up in this case because they've already started growing...so I didn't mess that up....I won't say who, but somebody has planted bulbs upside down before...she may or may not be writing this post. I put a few more rocks around the bulbs for stability.

Next, fill the container with water just up to the bottom of the bulbs.

Now you could leave it like this, it certainly looks pretty....but I wanted to add a little color and texture while the bulbs are growing....so I used some of my green moss. I just loosely filled in around the bulbs. I love the bright green.

Right now, the bowls are sitting on my counter, and I've got one in the window sill. However, it will probably change...I haven't even began to decorate for Christmas yet, so I foresee these in a different location soon.