By Beth Burwinkel
Enquirer contributor

You can't beat a vibrant amaryllis on the table during the holidays or a pot of cheerful daffodils or fragrant hyacinths blooming indoors during the winter months.

By taking a few easy steps now, you can brighten your home with flowering bulbs this winter. Tom Smith, a professor of horticulture at the University of Cincinnati and executive vice president at Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, tells us how.

What are some good bulbs to force?

The best - hands down - are daffodils. They just work spectacularly and can be used later in the landscape. Crocuses are also fun and quick. Tulips are going to be a little trickier without cooling conditions that are real exacting.

How do you force bulbs to bloom indoors?

When you force bulbs, you are trying to mimic what nature does - just speeding up the clock. Mid-November is a great time for potting bulbs. Purchase top-size bulbs. With daffodils or hyacinths, you'll want a 5- or 6-inch pot. Get a smaller container for crocuses. I recommend plastic containers because they hold up well to the cooling period outdoors.

The potting mix should be extremely light - use sphagnum peat or a bark combination and add a little perlite or vermiculite. Soil is not necessary because everything that the bulb needs is within that bulb. (But if you plan to plant daffodil bulbs in the yard next year, periodically water with fertilizer to help restore energy to the bulb for the next season.)

Pack the bulbs into the container almost bulb to bulb. Allow the tips of the bulb to protrude from the potting mix. As soon as you pot them, water the bulbs and then take the pot outside. A great place for the pot is a mulched landscape bed with a southern exposure. Pull back the mulch and dig a hole for the pot. Place the pot in an open area - make sure that there are no eaves over it. You want as much rain, snow, ice and sleet to fall on that container as possible. Spread 3 to 4 inches of mulch over the pot. That's all you need to do until you bring it back into the house.

If you pot your bulbs in mid-November, you can bring them in the house beginning the third week in January. You can bring the pot directly into a 70-degree room, but if you have an interim location that is 50 to 60 degrees so the plant can become acclimated, that's ideal.

Put a saucer under the container and provide adequate moisture. If you bring it inside during the third week of January, you'll have flowers around Valentine's Day. As it gets closer to spring, the time it takes for the blossoms to appear indoors will decrease from 21 days to 12-14 days.

You can pot bulbs as late as the third week in December, but if you do that, wait three or four weeks longer - perhaps into late February - before you start bringing them indoors.

You can expect about 10 days of excitement from a pot of forced bulbs. The cooler it is inside your home, the longer the blooming period will last. Daffodils bloom sequentially. You can remove the spent blooms and enjoy the others as they flower. Each daffodil bulb will produce more than one blossom.

What types of daffodil bulbs do you recommend?

I like "Tete a Tete." It's readily available and outdoors it only grows to about 8 inches in height. Even when it is grown inside, it doesn't get too tall. (Bulbs grow a little taller in the house than they would in the garden.)

What should you do if you want to plant the daffodils outside later?

After they've bloomed indoors, let them dry naturally in the pot. Take the bulbs out of the pot around June 1 and store them in a netted bag until October, and then plant them in your yard.

Are there bulbs that don't require a cooling period?

You can plant paper whites or an amaryllis. They're both a great project for children. Paper whites will bloom in 14-21 days, depending on room temperature. You just need to put the bulbs on gravel and add moisture.

Amaryllis take a little bit longer. If you want to use your amaryllis bulb year after year, it is easier to plant it in a bark/peat moss combination. When the amaryllis is through flowering, remove the spent blossom and flowering stem and let it stay in the pot. The foliage will fade away. Reduce watering when blooming stops.

Put the pot in the garden on the north side of your house during the summer.

The plant will generate new foliage. In the fall you can bring it back into the house and start the process again.

An amaryllis bulb will bloom six, seven, even 10 years in a row. I've grown an amaryllis five years in the same plastic container, never taking it out.

The bulb keeps getting bigger and eventually you'll need to transplant it into a larger container. Add a few granules of slow-release fertilizer periodically. When the foliage is active, irrigate it with water that contains a 20-20-20 fertilizer.

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