Friday, February 19, 2016

Forcing Branches: Improving February by Leaps and Bounds

Be still my heart! I was pushing my cart through the local QFC grocery store when I gasped and stopped. Then I said, "No way; no way, no way." This piqued Dan's interest. What on earth prompted this happy exclamation?
There were live flowering branches for sale! Grocery stores in Michigan don't sell live flowering branches ever, let alone in February. Okay, fine, if I went to a high-end organic store the likelihood of finding a treasure like this might go up, but I rarely do shop that way so I'm back to my original statement: never.
Yet here I was in a QFC (which is part of the Kroger Family of Grocery Stores) and I could buy and force my own forsythia or apple blossom branches! Did I mention that a large bundle was $5. I could hardly contain myself. I took this cart photo and texted my mom immediately. Look what I can have in this new wonderful part of the country!

I brought them home and had a large abstract swath of pink blossoms blooming on my kitchen ledge (lovely!) and tucked a few in my Valentine rose bouquet in the family room. All those years ago Martha talked about forcing branches and I was finally able to do it. Happy days are here again.

Am I going to make a scene about flowers and plants and life in the Pacific Northwest with its longer growing season until November? You bet.

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