Container bulb planting

Can bulbs like daffs and tulips be planted in containers and left outside for the winter? I'm in zone 5.

I've read here and other places if you put the pots into the ground or in a cold frame they will survive outside. If left out exposed to the air they probably won't survive the cold temperatures. My experience one year putting some tulips in a whiskey barrel, none of them came up. I did find the bulbs in the whiskey barrel soil so I know that animals didn't get them. I grow mine in pots but keep in an unheated garage that because it is under the house doesn't get too cold (30 degrees or so).

Sue

Hope my answer isn't too late! I've grown bulbs in containers on my balcony for years. Some years nothing comes up, usually because of too much moisture, but most years something comes up. Here's 2006.

Here's the lilies that came up later. I planted everything together.

A closeup of one of one of the lilies I planted. The vendor sent this one along as a gift.

Revclaus - those are very lovely pots. I do the same as you -- plant everything together and see what happens! In your case, it really succeeded.
jo

Revclaus, do you leave the pots on your balcony through the winter?
they look great with the blooms!

rev are those the foam pots? does the area you have the pots get what kind of sun exposure...

I do leave them on the balcony all winter. They're foam pots. A friend gave them to me 6 or 7 years ago and they're still good as new. As for sun, they don't get any. I'm on a north facing balcony. But I plant new bulbs every year. I don't like to have empty pots after the orientals are finished blooming (when they bloom!), so I either replant with annuals or take them inside for the summer.

that is amazing that the bulbs do that well with no sun....

also rev...can you recycle the tulip bulbs? do they blossum every year?

I don't use them again. I haven't tried keeping them because I don't want to wind up with NO blooms in the spring. But from all I've read they don't return all that well even in the ground, so I'm not going to take a chance in my containers.

This year I didn't have a lot of money to spend on bulbs, so I waited till the vendors started having sales and bought all the mixed Triumph tulips I needed for under $20. I think I had 40.