Garden

[gumboluver]

I live in zone 7b and this late winter/early spring I had jonquils and tulips bloom in separate 10 inch terracotta pots. I planted the bulbs in the pots last winter.  I want to try to keep the bulbs  in the same pots and want them to bloom next spring- but I'm not sure what to do.  Where do I place the pots during the hot southerm summer?    And do I need to water them during the summer?   And when summer passes, do I need to do anything to help them bloom next early spring?  Any help is appreciated. 

[JustJazzmom]

Ideally, I would move them into the ground for reliable year to year watering & bloom. 

Or you could take them out of the pots & leave in a bucket for summer outside (this is what I did with my daffodils /also called jonquils.) I planted the daffodils in the fall in the ground. 

The problem with terra-cotta pots is that they can crack in extreme cold, so keeping in pots outdoors year round isn’t feasible. I suggest keeping them in an unheated space & water well 1X/month during the winter. When all chance of extreme cold has passed, put the pots outside. They should bloom for you. 

[esmerelda]

@gumboluver  Fall 2017 I planted tulips (50 perennial bulbs) in a small half barrel container (plastic/resin) and planted pansies over them.  The tulips bloomed beautifully last spring.  I don't think the pansies survived.  It was a really cold winter.

Last fall I planted more pansies over the tulips.  The pansies survived the mild winter and the tulips bloomed again this year.  Not as many as the year before, but I was happy with them.

The container is unprotected outside and gets sun pretty much all day.  I didn't do anything at all to it.  I'll probably leave it as it is again this year.