Planting in a container on your deck, you probably want to replant as soon as the bloom is over. If this is so, you should think of your bulbs as annuals and expendable. Every year I plant 200 tulips to give a truly impressive display, if only for a few weeks. I buy the bulbs as soon as available locally, usually around the first of September, where they are the cheapest,usually Costco or Home Depot. Some should still be available. The bags of 40 or 50 bulbs are put in a small four cubic foot refrigerator in the garage, until the first week or two of December when they are planted. I plant them close for the best display, about four inches apart. Most years the rain is constant enough that no further care is needed. The total cost is about $50. Al

If my only garden was my deck I'd be looking for bulbs that flower from early spring all the way through fall. Smaller varieties around the edges and taller varieties at the center. Without checking the zones I'd be looking at Snow drops, hycinthia, frenzia, tulips, asiatic lilies, crown imperials and canna particularly the tropicanna. And I would go to Brecks for each and every one. But the choices of bulbs are really that choices. It depends on what you like that will grow in your zone.