Forcing branches for early season blossom

Nothing stirs the soul quite like the arrival of Spring. The lighter mornings accompanied with a riotous dawn chorus, the first stroke of spring green across the line of willow trees & a little spring in my step. Although spring promises us warmer days ahead, in my part of the world spring weather can be far more tempestuous than the cold yet sunny days we get in winter. Beautiful warm days can easily be followed with whipping winds & bitterly cold rain.

I keep an eye on the wild plum tree that sits on the edge of our property. As soon as the buds begin to swell, it is time to pick an armful of the long stems to put in a vase on our dining table. In just a handful of days the heat of the house will mimic spring & encourage the blossom to burst open to fill the room with that signature spring scent. I change the water every 3-4 days & find that the arrangement will last for about 2 weeks. This has become a favourite spring ritual that I look forward to every year. I haven’t tried it with any other blossoming trees but understand that most of the flowering prunus genus (plum, peach, cherry & apricot), pussy willow & forsythia all do well with this method.

The apricot trees are always the first to blossom. A beautiful soft raspberry cream with a sweet, spicy scent that sends the bees into a frenzy after their long, quiet winter. However the determination to always be first to flower often becomes its downfall when it easily gets caught by the inevitable frosts that still come at this time of year. The last 5 summers, we have not had any fruit from it! So I keep watch on the nighttime forecasts - hoping, hoping that the blossom can complete its cycle before a frost catches it.

As the season shifts, I hope that you can take the time to find beauty in the changes that are happening so quickly in nature at the moment, no matter what hemisphere you live in.