Winter city gardens: plant now for glorious pots of beauty that will flower from January

Choosing bulbs is the adult equivalent of pick’n’mix sweets. The labels shout about their bright colours and fragrance with perfect timing — just as everything outside is losing its lustre. Plant them now and you can look forward to glorious pots of beauty to lift the spirits as winter withers away.

When we think of spring bulbs it’s often daffodils and tulips that come to mind. But tiny, earlier-flowering bulbs can be uplifting, putting on a show when winter still has us in its grip. Plant now in pots and you can have a movable feast of beautiful colour and scent as early as January.

It’s a bit like gardening and flower arranging mixed together. You’re in control and you can watch up close as those bright petals unfurl.

Many of these small, early flowering bulbs have stunningly intricate little flowers that would be lost if planted in the garden, but pots give you the opportunity to place them just where you can see them best.

Small bulbs will grow even in tiny pots so you don’t need a garden — a windowsill will do, or put them by your front door. You could even plant them up and give them as Christmas presents.

Winter iris (iris reticulata) will enchant from February with dark blue, orchid-like flowers that have yellow dashes. They’re scented, too. There is little more heartening on a bone-cold February day than a terracotta bowl of these brave little flowers.

Try Harmony, Scent-sational or, says Chris Ireland-Jones from Avon Bulbs, Katharine Hodgkin which has “the colours of an exotic plant from the sea, pale blue with darker splashes of blue and yellow”. You can fit five bulbs in a 9cm pot.

Crocuses, such as Ruby Giant or Jeanne d’Arc, also look fabulous in pots and will attract bumblebees just emerging from their winter slumber. Pink or purple with super-bright orange stamens, they’re so cheerful planted 1-2cm apart en masse in pots.

Snowdrops will flower from January to March — try Galanthus S. Arnott for its honeyed scent and white bells with pretty green stripes inside. Fit five bulbs in a 9cm pot.

SIMPLE RULES

Planting bulbs in pots couldn’t be easier, as long as you follow a few simple rules. They don’t like being soggy, so plant them in free-draining compost such as John Innes No. 2, though multipurpose would be OK. Include a third horticultural grit and add more at the base of the pot and on top after planting.

Plant your bulbs three times as deep as their size and don’t be afraid to cram them in — as long as they don’t touch each other or the sides of the pot.

I like planting bulbs in plastic pots that fit inside posher-looking terracotta or metal ones. This way, you can keep moving the bulbs that look their best into prime position and “retire” them when they get tired.

A window box of trailing ivy, say, can be livened up from January to April. Just push the bulbs, pot and all, into the compost among the ivy. Or bring pots of bulbs inside when they are in flower. Even if you throw the bulbs away when they are past their best, it’s still going to be much cheaper than buying a bouquet.

From March onwards your table-top display could include muscari, the diminutive blue grape hyacinth. Avon Bulbs’ Chris Ireland-Jones has a particularly soft spot for the white version, Muscari aucheri White Magic. “Their little emerging buds are pale green and pointed like small pixie hats, swelling and whitening in the spring sunshine,” he says. Aim for three bulbs to a 9cm pot.

Scillas, often overlooked yet so delightful, need a bit more root depth, so plant five in a litre pot to admire their pale blue, drooping flowerheads.

For the ultimate sensuous spring flowers, though, you really can’t beat the anemone. A pot of Bordeaux, boasting impossibly sumptuous, dark red velvety petals with deep blue centres is more stunning than the most high-end bunch of flowers. Plant 10 of these little corms in a litre pot and place it in the centre of your table in the house when it comes into bloom in March. Your guests won’t be able to resist stroking the petals.