Are you planning to put the container in an unheated room or the garage? However, I definitely would use something that will drain really well.

Gritty mix is an excellent choice for this purpose. However, don't hold your breath about the tulips - their ability to return or perennialize in subsequent years is often seriously reduced when grown in a container.......on top of their disinclination to do so anyway, with the exception of species tulips and the Darwin hybrids.

MM- Yes, I intend to put the container in a non heated room. Hopefully it gets cold enough. It's been unusually warm here.

GG- I have 2 Darwin daydreams and 2 hybrids (I don't think of the Darwin variety). I didn't want to go too crazy as this is actually the first time I've attempted planting bulbs.

Thank you both for the replies!

This makes me curious though, should I fish out the tulip bulbs which won't come back next year? I wonder this because 1. What if they defy the odds and come back and 2. Since the tulips are below the crocuses and hyacinths (they're grape hyacinths) would me digging up the tulips cause problems for the crocuses and hyacinths growth for the next year?

I've heard that I should have planted these bulbs in the fall but I saw them at a nursery and I couldn't say no.

It is not too late, I have planted in-ground mid-January and had good bloom here in zone 5.

I also have some hyacinths, crocuses & alliums planted in containers but I'm using a

peat based mix. I don't grow tulips.

For containers I think it is worth starting fresh every year, except for Narcissus which can go for a few years.You need to be sure the bulbs will perform, unlike in the garden where the odd dud doesn't matter so much. A gappy pot just looks sad.

FWIW- grape hyacinths are not very showy in their first year, unless they are planted thickly, and would do better in the open ground where the clumps can bulk up. That said they can get weedy in some climates. True Hyacinths have more of the wow factor for pots.

As raee said, if the ground isn't frozen, you are fine to plant them in the garden now and you will have better chance of them returning if they aren't in a pot.