I have alot of tulips (mixed colors), daffys (the usual yellow), and some unknow lilies (I know one is the easter lily). I would love to trade for some of the red hot pokers. Let me know Paula

Outfamily, you don't say where it is you live...if in a southern clime, then the bulbs would have been given a cool period by the grower or seller. Actually your opening line brings up a question: My mother bought some bulbs at Christmas. What place, what nursery, would sell a bulb at the end of December in a northern clime. It would be then at the minimum, a month past their proper time to plant. AT that time, if you had planted them they still stood a chance of coming to something. Here it is February...4 months past when they should have gone into the ground Spring flowering bulbs cannot be planted in the spring...they have to be planted in the fall, when, with cooling temperature OF THE SOIl, they acquire roots. With roots that form in the fall, it can stand up to winter's worst...temperatures down to 40 below zero. C or F Without roots, they are at the mercy of the environment around them...freezing temperatures, worms, mice, squirrels and what you. Without roots they cant form their stalk, their foliage, the bloom...they have not been fed to make that happen. You have planted them into cold, cold ground...they wont acquire roots...its too cold. When the warmer temperatures of spring arrive they will begin to go mushy and then rot. They have to, they are no different than other things in the ground...they decmpose. Sad to say, they should have gone into the ground when your mother gave them to you....and even at that time, chances are they wouldn't acquire roots...but hope springs eternal...better there than out of the ground. Now, planted in February soil....they don't have a prayer. I have a sneaky feeling you live in the south somewhere..hence the reason why they were available at XMAS. If they had gone into the ground at the time of purchase, then you could have looked forward to having a bulb garden. Planted as you did, into freezing ground....and of course, you watered them...ice crystals would have formed right away next to the tissue and begun their going mushy....and then rotting. Its a sad state when a bulb is purchased the instructions of when to plant is not understood to be IMPORTANT enough to believe and left to wither on the vine.

I certainly am not going to be digging up those bulbs, they were enough work to get planted last fall. Plus I want them to return each year so I can have a spring show each year. I love spring bulbs, they produce lots of bloom and flowers at a time not much is going on in the garden. I have wanted to plant a large grouping for a long time now and just got to the point in my garden when I was ready to do it. I have bulbs elsewhere, (not as many as this) and daffs around the garden so I know how their follage dies back. As far as the folliage dying back and looking messy, I have had bulbs before and while their folliage doesn't look great while it dries out and turns brown, I don't think it's as much of a big deal as the above Poster has pointed out. I just ignore the old folliage after I cut or pinch off any developing seed heads. Eventually the folliage all dissappears anyway. I never lay down, cut or do anything else to the folliage as I want it to set next years bulbs. I intend to plant Zinnias in those two belgium block planters were the daffs are accross the front. Also intend to plant zinnias up on top were the bulbs are at the foot of the trellis shown in my other post oif bulbs blooming now in my yard. I am not going to be cutting back any folliage, just sticking started plants between those daff leaves. The tulips along the front are planted in back of and between two rows of daylilies. The leaves on those daylilies are still not compleatly grown out. I am sure that the daylilies will hide the tulip folliage nicely. Thank you all for the compliments. I am so pleased with the way that it all looks and enjoying the spring show so much.

marquiskissel1, unfortunately your image doesn't show up, and neither url is accessible to me. If the image is on your hard drive or in your email, you may be able to see it, but we won't be able to. I've never used Google's Documents, so I can't help with why those addresses don't work. Perhaps you have to specify particular Google Documents members who would be allowed to view the items? For a graphic to show up in a post on this forum, it must show up in Preview. So when you go to Preview, what you see there is what the final post will look like. [But again, if the graphic is on your hard drive or in your email, it may show up in the Preview anyway, but still not in the final post (or you may be able to see it in the final post, but not the rest of us).] Similarly, a link must be clickable in Preview or it won't work in the final post. Always click on the link in Preview to be sure it works -- a link with a typo will look fine, but won't take you to the desired page (BTDT). If you're not sure how to use the proper kind of html to code a clickable link (my Firefox add-on calls it xhtml), you can enter the link in the "Optional Link URL" box; you'll need to give the link a name -- it can be a descriptive name (Photo #1; Daylilies; etc.) or simply the url itself. Unfortunately you're limited to one link per post. Or if you can post a url we can access, I can make it a clickable link. Perhaps you could open a free Photobucket account and post the image there? Here are directions for posting from Photobucket: How to upload from Photobucket Good luck!