The unsung heroes of early spring

Are you forcing branches into bloom this spring? I sure hope so! It’s such an easy way to bring blooming beauty and life into our homes just at the time of year when we need it most.

If you’ve never forced branches before, check out my how to primer from last spring first.

There are so many branches that are fun and easy to force. Most of us have favorites in our yards that we look forward to every year.

Please keep doing that!

But I’m here today to open your eyes to beauty all around you that you may be missing. I’ve grown to love a number of unconventional choices for forcing and I want to make sure that you don’t miss out yourself.

Get beyond showy flowers, like crabapple forsythia and quince, to embrace texture and every kind of green.

Birch

Branches from our Birch tree produce subtle yellow catkins and create a beautiful cascading effect. They are gorgeous all on their own, or integrated into arrangements with blooming flowers.

Birch is fantastic for florals all through the season. They produce elegant weepy branches with plenty of open space and interestingly textured leaves. I like to use them as a linear element for larger designs.

But, it’s springtime when birch really shines.

Before leafing out, the branches send out wonderful cascading catkins. They are a muted yellow color that adds depth to arrangements with brighter yellows. Because we can force them at the same time that yellow narcissus are starting, it’s a match made in heaven.

They also create a lot of interesting line and texture to any arrangement and they are lovely enough to make a dramatic statement massed together all on their own.

If you have some larger containers for a real focal type statement piece in your home, birch branches are your go to.

Maple

Maple is a branch that I absolutely have to cut every year. It’s something I can’t do without. While it doesn’t produce anything you might think of as a flower, it does indeed bloom to produce those helicopter seed pods you see later in the season.

The flower has lots of texture and is the most marvelous chartruse green that is the absolute BEST for spring designs.

They last a very long time in the vase and it is fun to watch them open, bloom and produce and abundance of green leaves. It is very healing to have something leaf out before your eyes ahead of the bloom outside. It just brings that spring energy a little early.

Here’s the always stunning Jessica, talented florist from The Styled Porch in Lewiston ID with a lovely armload of maple. Jessica has a great eye for the unusual and she makes creative use of branches in many of her designs.

I love to mix maple with my spring flower arrangements for lines, texture and that pop of bright green. But they are also gorgeous just massed all by themselves in a large container

Maple mixed with spring flowers and harvested at the correct stage - just barely popping - When you get them early like this, they will open beautifully and last a long while. Have fun watching them unfurl over time.

Maple also looks great by itself. It is the springiest spring green ever and a bit of wildness is just what we all need right now.

Fruit Tree Prunings

We have a pretty sizable orchard at the farm. Every tree is pruned early in the spring and I don’t waste single stick. The cuttings from this annual spring chore is not waste at all! I pick everything up from the ground, bring it in and enjoy it before hauling it away.

The branches go into every imaginable container to be forced into bloom. The flowers are not super long lasting but they sure are fun to watch open and enjoy for a few days. Some are beautifully fragrant.

You may not have an orchard, but you or one of your friends likely has a fruit tree.

Don’t miss out on pruning season.

These cherry branches were bursting with snow white flowers just a day later

I’ll bet you have some interesting branches in your own space or from your neighborhood that you can force. Experiment with something new and I know you’ll find something beautiful and amazing to carry you from winter into spring.

Let me know if you discover something new.