“I know it isn’t spring yet,” Joe said. “But we need to bring some flowers into the house.”

Begin with forsythia. One January 18, I clipped two or three twigs from an unpruned bush. Bringing them indoors, I smashed the cut ends with a hammer and plunged them into warm water.

In a few weeks, yellow buds appeared.

On January 25 and weekly after that. I harvested three forsythia stems. I passed over the neatly paired buds spaced along the wood; they would produce leaves; I was after flower buds. These little lumps surrounded the stems.

As the days lengthened, the time it took for the buds to open grew less with each harvest. My great indoors filled with four-petal golden blooms. I stopped mashing the ends of the twigs, and the forsythia blossomed with less attention.

Walking out to the shrubs over snow could have been a challenge, but I laid a path of broad boards so as not to crush my footprints into the hidden grass. In a snowier year, I’d worn snowshoes to keep on top of winter.

Flowering quince is another easily-forced plant.  My experiment with early-gathered twigs was informative; anyone less impatient could begin on February 1.

Older varieties have thorns: beware! Now, breeders have produced thornless flowering quinces for the Proven Winners group. Look for double-blossomed ‘Scarlet Storm,' even doubler ‘Pink Storm’ and super-double ‘Orange Storm.'

(Alas, the thornless ones are also fruitless. Ann harvested the fruit from her old-fashioned bush, for a delectable rose-colored jelly-for-toast.)

Preview any flowering crab apple tree by gathering a few short sprays. Prunings from apple trees should provide blossoms, although color may be pallid.

Bush honeysuckle twigs are worth trying. How about some pieces of mock orange? Flowers are white, often with golden centers – and the scent is bound to banish winter mustiness.

Soak stems of pussy willows. Then, to preserve the “pussies,” after they’ve stood in water for a day, move them to a dry jug or vase. Water in which any willow twigs have stood may be used to encourage faster rooting of other plants, such as geraniums. (An old wives’ tale? Maybe so, but it works for me and I am an old wife.)

One year, a budded branch of red maple fell into the road by our house. I clipped some terminal twigs to bring indoors. That’s when I learned that red maple flower clusters aren’t red, but fluffy yellow-white. That bouquet lasted for several days.

Gardeners who bring springtime into winter in other ways might have other suggestions. Let me know, care of this paper.

Right now, spring is here. Celebrate with these early flowers!