Potting Bulbs for Spring

I was at my mom's house a few weeks ago and noticed a group of new ceramic containers sitting empty. She had purchased several at a local nursery while they were on sale. So I suggested we plant spring bulbs. We went to the store and found the bulbs Buy One Get One 1/2 off. So we decided to each buy two bags and split them all between us. We could do that because I also had a number of empty clay containers at my house.

 We used her front porch railing for a potting bench.

Mom happened to have a bag of pea gravel, so we used that in each pot for drainage. We then filled the pots with All-Purpose potting mix and bulbs.

We had a mix of large, medium and small bulbs. It's usually pointy end up, but with the anemones, we just had to guess.

Labeling was an afterthought, we chose clothes pins because we had them on hand. Once finished we lined them up on her back deck where they are visible and get plenty of rain. Once it gets colder we will probably move them up against the house.

*one thing we did not consider are squirrels, there's a large population in her neighborhood. Feel free to comment on ways to keep them out of the containers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 I took the remaining bulbs to my house and filled the pots with (small) pine cones for drainage.

When finished potting I lined them up on our lower (covered) deck in a spot they would get plenty of rain. Like Mom's pots, they will probably get moved up against the house. The last few winters have been so mild, my guess is we are due for freezing temperatures and snow.

I haven't potted bulbs in years, but know that in early spring I'm going to like having spring flowers blooming on my deck.