Bulbs in Pots

By Veronica

The spring bulb planting season is here! It is a time to start planning for brighter days to come. Spring bulbs will find their way in the garden, in the ground or in pots, and in the home too with varieties that can be forced and enjoyed from the comfort of your favourite chair.

Bulbs, in general, perform well in pots as their roots require only little space to grow. Short varieties and scented ones are preferred however, to create cheerful displays on tables, garden pillars or at the front door. From snowdrops to miniature daffodils, the choice remains vast for pots packed with colour at the start of the year.

 

Planting up shallow bowls.

As a general rule, a bulb should be planted 3 times its size deep. So if the bulb is 2cm high, then plant it at a depth of 6cm. Consequently, the best bulbs for shallow pots are the small bulbs like Snowdrops, Iris Reticulata or Muscaris. You may be familiar with Galanthus nivalis, the common snowdrop, ideal for naturalising, but there are many varieties to try and showcase in pots like the double-flowered ‘Flore Pleno’ or the scented Woronowii. The muscari is very prolific and easy to grow, the blue flowers are the perfect complement to the free-flowering Narcissus ‘tete-a-tete’. Unless you prefer fill a basket with these bulbs, planted just at the surface, for a charming arrangement in or out.

As for the daffodils, the multi-headed varieties are the best. Tete-a-tete produces golden yellow flowers on short stems and is unrivalled for the quantity of flowers it produces. ‘Jetfire’ is another favourite amongst the short varieties, with its reversed petals and bright orange cups. It produces only one flower per stem, but its bright colours make up for it! ‘Minnow’ boasts of softer colours and can produce as many as 5 flowers on one single stem. It is a little bit taller than the first two, but still small, reaching up to 30cm in height.

As Spring arrives, you might also enjoy some the dwarf tulips like the all-time favourite ‘Red Riding Hood’. The dramatic veined foliage in shades of green and purple is the perfect backdrop for the bright red flowers in March/April. You may however prefer the generous, berry coloured blooms of ‘Alison Bradley’, standing 30cm tall.

Planting up larger pots

You can always use bulbs with other plants for year-round interest. For example, small bulbs like snowdrops or even crocus are great for underplanting shrubs like roses. Daffodils and tulips will make a great addition around standard trees. These need to be planted deeper so you can leave them in place all year-round and add summer bedding plants in May to hide the wilting leaves of your bulbs.

Showy flowers like Alliums can also be planted in containers. Most will do better in giant pots as they are so tall but there are short varieties that you could try like a 30cm like Christophii, ‘Rosy Dream’ or even ‘Graceful Beauty’. These will grow to a height of 50cm for the tallest (Christophii). You can plant them together as the shades (purple, pink and white) complement each other beautifully or in colour blocks for impact.

Tulips are a great choice for larger pots as well. Their bold colours and elegant flowers look particularly good in large terracotta or glazed pots.

You can also mix things up, choosing bulbs that will flower in a succession from January to June: The famous lasagna planting.

Lasagna planting

The principle of lasagna planting is layering. Each layer for a type of bulb. You can have many types of bulbs in one pot, if the pot is large and deep enough. But if you can only have a smallish pot, you can still experiment with the layering but limit it to 3 types.

Typically, we choose varieties that flower at different times, like snowdrops, daffodils, tulips. But you could easily do muscari with tulips and alliums, or snowdrops, crocus and hyacinths. The possibilities are endless.

Start with the largest (or the late flowering) bulbs at the bottom of the pot and finish with the smallest at the top.

In practice, choose a pot with a hole and add a layer of horticultural grit at the bottom for drainage; this can also be hydroleca or even pieces of broken clay pots. Add compost (bulb fibre is ideal but a light compost, in general, is good) in a layer of at least 2 inches (5cm) more is better if your pot is big enough. You can now place your first layer of bulbs (Alliums, Tulips or even late flowering daffodils). Repeat for the next layer, compost and bulbs (Hyacinths, early-flowering tulips, daffodils), and to the top layer with snowdrops, crocuses or fritillarias. Finally, cover with the adequate layer of compost (muscaris can be planted two thirds down with the top visible but snowdrops should be entirely covered with compost).  You can also make a bulb lasagne with bulbs flowering simultaneously and have a pot bursting of colour with tulips and hyacinths in April for example.

In a nutshell, bulbs are perfect for pots and will even take a certain degree of neglect as they like a good drainage and do not need feeding until the bulb has finished flowering. For any size of pot, there is a suitable bulb to try so even if you have a very limited space, a tumbler size pot can hold 3 daffodil bulbs or 5 muscaris, a 10 cm pot is big enough to start with snowdrops, there is no pot too small.

Ideal for beginners and children, bulbs allow you to be so creative and bring colour even in the tiniest corner.