Bulbs: Forcing Bulbs for Outdoor Containers, 4 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
Here's how my urns look today, filled with the pots of 'Princess Irene' tulips I forced.

While I'm happy with the results, I've discovered there may be an easier way to have spring bulbs in your above-ground urns and pots. In early March, a friend contacted me to say her brother, a landscaper, had some tulips left from one his his projects last fall. You can read about it here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1301564/

As you can see, I was skeptical, but planted the bulbs directly in pots on March 8th. Photos 3-5 show how these bulbs look today, a mere 7 weeks from the day I planted them. In the future, I think I may just hold my tulips for the urns and pots in my garage over the winter and plant them mid-March directly into the planters where I want them. That way I won't have to worry about finding a pot that exactly fits into the planter, I won't have to worry about the squirrels raiding my pots of bulbs in the ground (it's happened in the past - this year I put chicken wire over the bed to keep them from digging in the pots) and I won't have the problem of using multiple pots in my large limestone urn. I'm going to test this plan next spring. Stay tuned for results.