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When you live somewhere where it is cold for a good 8 months out of the year you really look forward to plants growing in the Spring but that is a long wait. You may want to grow plants in the winter so you can have plants to look at all year long. Only these plants will be indoor plants.

If you begin in January you can take branches of off shrubs that bloom in the spring and bring them inside. Once you bring them inside you should place them in a jar of water without the lid on it. You then should put a plastic bag over the mouth of the jar. When you do this you can force the branches to flower in about 4 weeks. Plants that work good for this are pussy willow, magnolias, and forsynthia though there are others.

You can also force bulbs to grow indoors. You plant the bulb in moist gravel with only the very top uncovered. If you start the bulbs in September they will bloom by December. One plant that works really well for this is paperwhite narcissus bulbs.