How to make a hyacinth bloom indoors in the winter

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It's mid-January, and even though it's chilly outside, you can still enjoy a blooming hyacinth. Actually, you can do this with any flowering plant that grows from a bulb. It's called "forcing", and in spite of that name, it requires no effort at all. This how you do it:

I recommend buying the bulb and the pot together, like this one, which is on my windowsill. This was $2.99 at the grocery store, and while the plant itself will fade away after it blooms, you can keep the pot, and just buy a bulb next year. If this is your first time, I recommend getting the whole package.

As you can see, the bulb sits into the space at the top of the pot, and the roots grow into the water. By the way, I just noticed as I was writing this that the water level was going down, so I just went and added more water. That's all you have to do. Well, it has to go on a sunny windowsill. I turn it every few days to keep the bloom looking even, but you really don't have to. It wants to grow towards the sun, of course.

As you can see, the blooms start to open up from the bottom up. I wish you smell this, it's wonderful, it perfumes my dining room, and I can smell it as I walk by into the kitchen to make my coffee.

So there you go. You can do this all winter. Enjoy!

Two days later, in full bloom

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