Spring preview

I know it's early, but I have had some spring in my family room. Nothing too garish, mind you. The colors blend with the scene outside the window, but there has been this gorgeous, heady fragrance wafting about that has me permanently converted to forcing narcissi.

This is my first year forcing any kind of bulb indoors. In November, I bought nine bulbs of Inbal Paperwhites at the local store, a nice shallow pot and some marble chips. I left most of them in the cellar, placing three bulbs in the pot with the stones. I filled it with water up to the base of the bulbs and set it by a sunny south-facing window. The kids were rather curious, watching each day to see how much they had grown. (Torin wanted the rocks and I had to convince him they were not part of his toys.) It didn't take long with all that sunlight- and the fact that they were right over a heating vent- and I had my first blooms before Christmas! It was much earlier than I thought they would flower, but very welcome anyway. I began another three in a bowl. At Christmas, my neighbor gave me a lovely present of a gorgeous blue pot, beautiful polished stones and three more bulbs; the result of six of them together was a real joy in early January.

I have let the greens grow all the way out now, and the first three bulbs are drying so I can plant them outside next fall. I began the last trio today in the first pot and will savor their delicate looks and sweet fragrance sometime in February. Next year, I may try tulips or hyacinths... this is much more fun than pouring over the seed catalogs with longing, resigned to the fact that real spring is at least 12 weeks away.