First, daylilies are not bulbs - they are fleshy-rooted perennials that are incredibly tough and hardy and can be planted anytime of year the soil is workable. Not all iris are bulbs either and many varieties can be planted similar to the daylilies. Most true bulbs that bloom in spring need a period of vernalization to set roots and develop flower buds, that's why they are planted in fall. If insufficient vernalization is provided, they won't bloom, or at least not that first season in the ground. The pre-chilling of spring flowering bulbs in warmer climates achieves the same purpose. IME, January is pretty much the limit on when one can plant spring flowering bulbs and expect them to bloom that spring. And that may be difficult to accomplish in zone 5.....I'd imagine your soils to be pretty well frozen at this time of year :-) The other aspect is that spring flowering bulbs available for sale this late in the planting season tend to be leftovers and of lesser quality....the good stuff's already been sold! One needs to maintain dormant bulbs under proper storage conditions for them to remain viable and they simply don't last forever out of the ground. If you don't have any bulbs on hand to plant now, I wouldn't recommend searching any out. The combination of unsuitable planting conditions (frozen soil or snowcover), the lack of quality bulb sources and the lateness of the season will just serve to produce unsatisfactory, frustrating results. Wait until later when the soil is workable and the weather cooperative to plant perennials like iris and daylilies. And look for already started bulbs (in containers in leaf and often in bud) available at garden centers or other plant outlets when they come in season - February and March in my climate, perhaps a bit later in yours. Or wait until fall to plant the dormant bulbs for the following spring. And pretty much any spring flowering bulb will work in your climate. You just need to do some research on what are bulbs (corms, tubers, etc.) and what are really rooted or rhizomatous perennials.

Thanks, you guys! I was afraid to leave the window boxes outside here, in Zone 5. I've tried planting bulbs directly in my balcony window boxes, and they don't come up. Same with pansies I try to overwinter, they don't come back either. So it sounds like I should just keep them in the garage and not worry about them. Hopefully they won't get too big. I'm still thinking I should probably cut back the watering to once a month or so.

Thank you, thank you all. It seems others have been thinking along my line of thought too and I'm happy to hear some of you are breaking all the rules with success. I should have also mentioned all the dead foliage at my parents garden is still in place, so I won't have any problems locating what I want to locate. I made some pretty good mental notes earlier in the season too. I've kind of given up on the idea of planting most spring bulbs amongst my other perennials. It just gets too difficult when I want to move something and end up digging up bulbs in the process of moving something else. Since I move things around a lot, I've had this problem often. Bulbs that are planted very deep aren't as big a problem, but those little ones just a few inches below the surface are. That's the reason I'm kind of excited about having this area I can devote to spring bulbs. The hedge in the rear of this area will eventually fill in all the bare spots, but that's going to take a few years. In the meantime I have a blank slate to work with. Kevin

On a walk through of my flower beds I am seeing the daylilies and iris up, as well as the few tulips I put in last fall. Also, yarrow is back, I am seeing my purple and white coneflowers (transplants from a neighbor last year) poking little reddish shoots up, my potted blueberry bush is getting buds along the branches, my roses are putting up a bit of new growth, and one of my ornamental grasses has some green on it. On our enclosed deck my potted hostas, hydrangeas, and miniature roses are all coming back to life. And an asiatic lily that I bought last summer on clearance in a 3" inch pot, and then subsequently forgot all about and I assumed it was dead, got carried in by mistake when my kids helped me carry in the tender perennials and such. I meant to throw it away several time but kept forgetting. I noticed yesterday it is sending up new shoots! I have no idea how that thing survived my neglect. Nature is amazing! I wanted to put tons and tons of bulbs in my beds, but the drought we experienced here last summer and fall left the ground like cement. We couldn't even bust into it with a pickaxe. So we couldn't get bulbs in the ground. :-( Maybe this year I can!