Van Bourgondien

Garden Guide Bulbs for Outdoor Containers

Many summer-blooming bulbs take beautifully to container growing. To get a longer growing season, you can start many of them indoors early in spring and move them outdoors, pot and all, when temperatures are warm enough. Tuberous begonias, caladiums, calla lilies, dwarf cannas, dwarf dahlias and zephyranthes are some of the best to try. Whether potting bulbs for indoors or outdoors, make sure the pot has good drainage by placing gravel or broken pottery in the bottom of the pot. Position the bulbs at the recommended depth and water well once, and then water sparingly until top growth appears. After that, keep the soil moist and remember that clay pots dry out very quickly. In hot weather, water daily. Turn the pots a bit each day to keep stems straight.