Need advice on bulbs!

[BubbaAndBump]

Hi fellow MNers - want to buy my mum a lovely potted bulb or two for her birthday this weekend - was thinking about a dwarf iris or something similar. Any suggestions?

Iris reticulata are gorgeous - I love them, but they won't flower for a while. They are teeny weeny so if it were me I'd plant maybe 8 or 10 in a pretty shallow bowl filled with bulb fibre. Here's a pic and some more info

In terms of other suggestions, it depends when you want it to flower. You can force bulbs to flower earlier by exposing them to cold/dark and then heat, so for eg you can get hyacinths to flower for Christmas by doing this which brings forward their natural flowering time by a few months.

I'm not an expert though, hopefully there will be one along soon.....

Thanks taffetacat - really good advice. May still get them as they look gorgeous and my mum will appreciate them when they do flower.