Forcing Spring Branches

With all my many years of gardening this is the first year I've made the effort to cut branches in the early spring to bring them indoors to force into bloom. I began this in early February and have been at it continually ever since and it has been well worth it. After the harsh winter we had here in the Mid-Atlantic region, the blooms are a welcome sight. I started out following some instructions for forcing I'd collected on the web and in magazines, some of which involved wrapping the stems in clear plastic and misting them daily - what a pain! I eventually found I had enough success by just simply cutting the stems and then placing them in plain water!