Mom gave She Who Must Be Obeyed a set of flower bulbs for indoor "forcing." This weekend the paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus, a sub-species of Narcissus tazetta) opened and we have tall, stringy green stems and leaves topped by beautiful small white blooms. The sun peeked through the overcast for the first time in too long so I shot a couple of photos.
Tasha showed some interest earlier in the sprouting plants –leaf- and stem-chewing interest, that is– but was persuaded to leave the greenery alone. All it took was a firm, gruff "nooooo…" or two, no rough stuff, and Tasha sniffed a little cat sniff and plodded away. She looked quite mysterious rim-lit by this morning's sunlight.
PhotonStopper 
Oh – flowers in the dead of winter – how lovely. I don't think I keep the house warm enough to force blooming. We have the thermostat at 60 on w/end days and down to 57 all nights and working days.
Hey, Emjay — Actually the paperwhites are spring-bloomers, meaning they should by happy in any indoor temperatures you can tolerate! Probably any of the spring bulb flowers would do fine in your chilly apartment after you follow forced-blooming protocols. The nice thing about paperwhites is they apparently don't need pre-planting chilldown. I'm not a gardener, however, but that's what I read. — JG
Thanks for the info. When we grew bulbs in Sydney we would have to dig them up at their end and store them in the fridge until spring and then replant. One nice thing about Washington DC is that you don't have to dig anything up until you want to thin them out!