Overwintering bulbs in pots?

Hi all. I'm fairly new to the world of bulbs. I was wondering if i could plant daffodil bulbs in gallon plastic pots and overwinter them "embedded" in my outdoor raised veggie beds? The idea being that i could pull the pots out of the beds and set them en masse on my deck when they bloom in the spring. Has anyone tried this?

Hi Rose, what do you mean by "embedded"? If you sink the entire pot into the ground. By all means, that's a great idea. I wouldn't keep plastic pots (or any other type of pots especially if they're small) above ground-- especially where you're, they will surely freeze, and so will the bulbs. But if you sink the pot(s) into the ground and mulch the top well as you would your regular garden, you would have success.

Happy gardening. :-)

Hi Lily, Thanks for your response - I appreciate it.
Yep, I was planning to sink the pots into the dirt in the raised bed. Good idea to put a layer of mulch the top - I'll plan on doing that. I was concerned about a couple of things: 1) Would the raised beds provide enough insulation (vs putting the pots directly into the ground at "earth level"), and 2) Would the plastic pots, even with holes in the bottom, retain water that would freeze or rot the bulbs. Thanks for your thoughts on this. :)

I've done a similar exercise successfully before but I actually dug a trench where the pots rested below ground level several inches and filled trench with straw and mulched over the whole area at least a foot's depth of straw above ground level.

jmorth,
Good to know that this sort of thing can actually work. i may try some in the raised bed and some in a ground-level bed. A thick blanket of mulch seems to be a key.
I was hoping to plant individual daffodil bulbs in 1 gallon containers, but i'm wondering if that might not be deep enough?

Hi SnowlineRose!

Every fall I plant bulbs in several plastic pots (various sizes, depending upon how I'm going to use them in the Spring). Over the years I've done narcissus, daffodils, muscari and tulips (all one variety or a 'Spring Garden' mix) and I've had great luck.

I use a moisture control planting mix and put the bulbs a couple inches below the edge of the pot, then fill with soil. I bury the pots in a hole lined with mulch so the pot is just below the the ground level (so the rim of the pot is just below the surface) and top off with a couple inches of mulch. The urn in this photo contains one large plastic pot (the big shallow type) planted with a dozen tulips. This is what they look like in mid-March, when I pull them up out of the ground and put them in the urn. I add a little mulch so the pot does not show in the urn.

The pot you use needs to have drain holes in the bottom. I line the hole in the ground with mulch so water will drain away from the pot and so any roots that grow through the drainage holes are not pulled off when I lift the pot in the Spring.

After two weeks, the tulips have started growing.

In another two weeks - warmer weather accelerates their growth.

Five weeks after putting the pot in the urn, the tulips are starting to bloom.

I've used several different tulip varieties over the years, but I have had the best luck with early and mid-season Darwin tulips because they have shorter stems, thus they are less likely to be wind damaged in my urns. "Apricot Beauty" and "Princess Irene" (in this photo) are two of my favorites.

Awesome information....I've been going to try this for a long time and now I feel much better prepared for it. I buy tulips and put them in the ground and pretty much treat them like annuals but this would be fun to have some pots to pull and put around the yard/garden. My middle name is Irene so I quite often buy 10 or 20 of PI and I think they are gorgeous. Good idea about keeping them on the short side.....thanks for all your instructions Leawood ! kim

"Princess Irene" is one of my all-time favorite tulips. The color is so dramatic and they are relatively long-lasting, since they bloom mid-season and don't get exposed to as much heat. I sometimes worry that people will think I'm stuck in a rut because I often use them in my planters, but I really like their beauty.

Leawood, Thanks so much for all of the info and picts - fabulous! It sounds like you really have this process figured out. Good idea about using vars with shorter stems. I'm planning to clear my veggies beds this weekend and prep them for bulbs in pots. Still contemplating what size pot to use for daffodils - is 1 gallon going to be deep enough?

1 gallon size is really deeper than you need - those you buy at florists or the grocery store have been forced in shallow, azalea pots. Using a shallow pot gives you more options of how you can use them when you display them.

Good to know, good to know. Thanks for all of the info and great ideas, Leawood. btw, do you have deer in your area? If so, do they leave the tulips (aka deer candy) alone in the urns?

Occasionally I have deer that have come from the creek behind my house. So far, I have only lost tulips once to deer. Here is a Chinese tub I filled with two 6" pots of tulips a few years ago.

Beeeeeautiful, Leawood. Oh i think i'm going to have to go urn/tub shopping! Very inspirational. Thank you.

The tub was very inexpensive - I think I bought it 10 or 12 years ago at Pier One, or some similar import store. It's called a Chinese Foot Tub (I assume for soaking your feet, although my two feet certainly would not fit in it!). It works great arranged with flowers and sitting in the center of the dining room table.

ok now how deep must these containers be?

Or just plant in pot then into soil. In spring THEN place in decorative container??

These beautiful pics are inspirational!! thank you for sharing

I select a pot that fits into the container I want to have the bulbs in when they bloom. For the urns by my patio, I use a large, shallow plastic pot (18" diameter X 6.5" deep) with drain holes in the bottom.

I put about 3" of potting soil in the bottom, arrange the tulip bulbs and fill the pot to the rim with potting soil. I use about 18 tulips in this size container - I've discovered if you put them closer than about an inch apart, the whole pot gets rootbound and the tulips are not as large and full.

I dig a hole in a bed that gets some winter sun, line it with mulch and then set the pot in the hole. The rim of the pot should be at ground level or slightly below. Fill in around the pot with mulch and cover with a 2" layer of mulch. In early March (here in zone 5b) you can pull back the mulch and see the sprouts. I usually move the pots to urns above ground around the middle of March, depending on the weather forecast. They can handle frost, but sub-zero weather will freeze the bulbs and they will turn to mush, which is why you 'force' them in the ground, rather than planting directly in the above-ground planter.

For this large limestone urn (42" diameter) I plant 5 smaller pots (15" diameter X 6" deep) with tulips. In March I pull them out of the ground and arrange them in the large urn and fill in around them with mulch or potting soil and top off with a layer of mulch.

Some years I have also planted narcissus or daffodils in individual peat pots and forced them in the ground with my pots of tulips. I place the narcissus or daffodils in the spaces between the pots of tulips to 'fill in'.

I use 3" peat pots with one bulb per pot and set 24 of them in one of the plastic trays that flats of annuals come in, then I sink the whole tray of pots in the ground, same as the larger pots. Lining the hole with mulch makes it easier to pull them up in the spring, since the peat pots allow the roots to grow out through the sides and bottom.