Between now and spring, nurseries, garden centers and online plant dealers will attempt to entice you with promises of filling your home with beautiful blooming plants to tide you over until the real gardening season begins. They know we plant junkies and gardening addicts are desperate for a growing fix. As a former garden center plant buyer it was my job to find those beauties you just couldn’t resist and convince you they would flower and flourish inside with you until the weather breaks.
Anything that would naturally or could be forced to flower in winter was in play—primroses, daffodils, roses, geraniums, cyclamen, African violets, orchids, begonias, kalanchoe and so many, many more, often dresed in something party pretty--a colorful wrap or adorable novelty pot to make them even more irresistible. So enticing........... but will they actually last?
Well, that's open to interpretation. Some of them are certainly fine houseplants that have the capacity to rebloom for you without a lot of extra care. Some of them will bloom for a few weeks and give you the opportunity to summer them on the patio or plant in the garden to enjoy in the future. And sadly, truth be told, some are bound for the compost pile after blooming is finished, unless you have a merciful gardening friend with lots of extra time and space (who will be sensible enough to toss it but not tell you about it).