I planted Gladioli for the first time last summer. When I dug them up in the fall there were tiny pea-sized bulbs. Can I put those in a pot and will they grow and mature eventually into proper bulbs?

Yes they will, absolutely. That's how the big bulbs are formed, they start out as the small 'babies' that you saw. Gladiola bulbs often form these bublets around the basil plate. Store the bulbets until May and plant them in the garden. Plant Gladioli in a fairly sandy, well-drained soil because they don't like to sit in water (or they will rot). By mid-summer the bublets will have produced some leaves but no blooms. They will bloom in their second year. So will remove them from the ground in the fall, over-winter them and they will give a great show in 2009.