When buying bulbs for next spring, choose some for containers, even when you’ve enough space for wonderful drifts of snowdrops, daffs or fritillaries. A pot is ideal for capturing a snippet of this sumptuous woodland carpet of bulbs, presenting a close-up of their tiny but intense blaze of colour. After their moment of glory, you can hide them away and fill the space with attractive new tenants. I do this by filling one or two large planters with a succession of smaller pots, starting the season with spring bulbs.

When deciding what to grow, I always have three things in mind. Firstly, I have plants that are good for pollinators. Our early bumblebee queens need help to build themselves up with a good supply of nectar and pollen before nesting. Secondly, I only put bulbs – crocuses, for example – in sheltered spots as they can get horribly battered by wind and rain in exposed places. Most importantly, though, container plants – especially low-growing ones – often punch above their weight. You’ll only fully appreciate the subtle markings and scent of a bulb’s tiny flowers when it's within easy reach of nose and eye.

When choosing plants for pollinators, always go for single flowering varieties, as the reproductive parts of doubles have often been removed to make way for the extra petals – little use for questing bumblebees.

Crocuses are ideal for this and there’s no shortage of choice varieties. Two of the more appealing possibilities are Crocus chrysanthus Herald and Crocus tommasinianus Whitewell Purple. The early-flowering Herald has primrose yellow flowers with deeper yellow hearts. And you can only enjoy the tiny yellow edge to the outer plum purple petals when you’ve got them up close. Crocus tommasinianus Whitewell Purple is just as appealing, with the silvery mauve outer part of the petals gently merging into a white centre.

Like crocuses, dwarf irises also enjoy the protection of a pot and there are plenty tiny reticulata varieties available. Who couldn’t enjoy Natascha’s outstandingly elegant ivory, almost ice-blue falls? These flowers blend beautifully next to Alida’s shimmering light-blue flowers. And the eye-catching lemon flowers of Iris danfordiae are quite irresistible. Unlike so many spring bulbs, danfordiaes are quite strongly scented, so should be up at nose level, where you can also enjoy the intricate markings on petals.

Scillas, or squills, are good in a pot. Although they’re superb grassland bulbs, an intense splash or two on the patio is nearly as welcome. As a general rule, they’re poor competitors, so will thrive well in their own dedicated pots.

Most of these small spring bulbs prefer to complete their flowering and growing without competition from larger neighbours, so are not so suitable for layering.

Squills have very little foliage and are perfectly well-behaved. As an 18th-century vicar put it: "They have a genteel appearance when in blow, without the rambling look of many of the sorts of perennial flowers." So, despite their tiny size, these blooms are much more noticeable than many other bulbs.

Scilla bifolia is an especially attractive specimen with its dainty little heads of deep-blue flowers. And because white sits so well with almost any shade of blue, S siberica Alba, with its near snowdrop-like stars, is the perfect companion.

Another well-behaved little bulb is corydalis. As with other dwarf bulbs, it fares best in a well-positioned pot. It tolerates light shade and, unlike untidy, sprawling muscari, the foliage dies quickly after flowering.

One of the most attractive corydalis is C solida subsp solida Beth Evans, with large, deep-pink, powerfully scented flowers above icy, almost ferny leaves. And it has a strong Scottish pedigree, being named after the wife of Alf Evans (1920-2001), an alpine specialist who had been assistant curator at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. The plant was almost certainly a seedling selected from the botanic garden.