I grow many of my bulbs in containers, in a cold greenhouse. Most of the bulbs in my collection are winter growing species from the winter rainfall area of the Cape, South Africa and Chile. This year I decided to add some new genus to my collections, mainly, gladiolus species ( mostly purchased from Telos Rare Bulbs and others, from seed). Here are a few images of showing the diversity of corm shapes, and some shots of how I research the specific requirements in the literature, just in case one species requires loam, or loathes lime or acid soil. Most will grow in a general souther hemisphere gritty mix, on the lean side, but sometimes I do like to geek-out and see if maybe there are some hints hidden in the books.
The last shot shows the pots, planted and sprouting in November, in a sand plunge in full sun. Here in Massachusetts, the winter sun will soon be weak, so every hour counts, and I keep this side of the greenhouse single-pane glass.