Festive, if temporary

Winter gardening is about forcing bulbs, but much more. This is the time when flowers inside the house are essential. This is the time when it’s hardest to keep living plants alive.


But it’s also fun. I love bringing big evergreen branches in for the mantelpieces. I love planting hundreds of hyacinths for forcing. And I love getting marvelous gifts like the one you see here—a tree made out of evergreen boughs.


Soon a recently-bought amaryllis will be in bloom, and not too many weeks later a bunch of narcissus will as well. Such is winter gardening. And such is GBBD in December.