Bring a few flowering branches inside

Shrubs such as forsythia and cornelian cherry that formed flower buds last year can be forced to flower inside now. Prune those branches that are not essential to the plant's basic shape or save branches from your winter pruning. Branches to force should be at least 1 foot long, full of plump flower buds and cut on a day above freezing.

Cut the ends at an angle and put into water in a cool room out of direct sunlight. When the buds color up or the foliage begins to unfurl, arrange the branches in a vase and display them in a cool room out of direct sunlight.

Good choices for forcing this month include serviceberry (Amelanchier), magnolia (Magnolia), flowering quince (Chaenomeles), forsythia (Forsythia), crabapple or apple (Malus), cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), flowering cherry (Prunus), spring-flowering witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis) and redbud (Cercis).

The spring-flowering witch hazels in your garden may have already flowered due to the warm weather over the course of winter

• Some early bulbs may start developing more prominent foliage, especially those planted with a southern exposure, close to a house or garage. The Chicago Botanic Garden has some snowdrops in flower now.

The first greenery to show is foliage, with flower buds appearing later in the bulb's growth. Subsequent cold weather might damage the edges of the foliage, but unless the flower bud has appeared, it will not affect the future flowering or health of the bulb.

A few of the small early bulbs can tolerate a bit of frost. They include winter aconite, snowdrops and glory-of-the-snow. This is nothing to be concerned about.

• Tim Johnson is director of horticulture at Chicago Botanic Garden, chicagobotanic.org.