Older squill bulbs may be a little deep in the soil, but you can transplant them. It's probably best to transplant them after they bloom and produce seed, if you don't want their flowers and leaves to wilt, but it's easiest to dig them up when they still have leaves to mark them out. The outer jacket of the bulbs is often maroon -- hard to see against the soil. You can also plant seeds when the flower stems droop and form seed pods. Seed pods are small and almost round with three sides; first green, then, when they're completely ripe, purplish. If it's hard to find the pods, look for their stems between the leaves at ground level. It'll take two years or more for the squill grown from seed to produce flowers, but by seed is how they spread. Try transplanting bulbs, and then spread seeds on the surface of the soil above the bulbs.

What, no one mentioned morning glories yet? A big mass of "Heavenly Blue" is gorgeous, and some of the Japanese varieties are knock-outs. We're not early risers here so I planted white moonflower(ipomoea alba) instead. If you need a spring blue, I haven't seen lungwort (pulmonaria) mentioned yet. It's a spreader, but I don't know if you can wintersow it because I've never seen seeds. I bought a tiny one at a local plant sale in May. Mine looks like the one at the link. It also comes in variations with more or less silver on the leaves, and different flower colors like white or coral. Double-check variety descriptions to make sure you get a blue one. New to me this year: blue milkweed (tweedia aka oxypetalum) - small pale blue flowers, felty ivy-looking leaves. I don't like the smell of the leaves when they are touched, or the milky sap that drips when deadheading, so I moved them from the windowbox to the ground last week. They didn't miss a beat. This plant is sturdier than it looks. And I bought one Black and Blue salvia to see what all the raves were about. Wow! it looks great. I should have bought three. I want more blue, too, so I've been reading all the suggestions. Keep it coming! -Edie Here is a link that might be useful: pulmonaria on wikipedia

Among the big bulbs are daffodils. If I were just starting out I'd buy small packages of a bunch of different kinds and keep the labels over the winter. The reason you should keep the labels is there is no way to know from the pictures which ones you will end up liking, and because foliage is so long lasting, big plantings spend more time ugly than in bloom. For me their worth it, because ones like thallia and poet's narcissus are so flat out beautiful, I wouldn't be without then, plus deer won't touch them. All of the minor bulbs are worth trying, like siberian squill and snow drops, and a dozen others. Avoid grape hyacinth, no matter how good the photos look. You get tons a foliage that won't quit ever, and it will be with you until the day you die or move. The only other advice is don't plant any bulbs where water tends to stand, since water will kill most bulbs even quicker than deer. And another thing, don't give up. It takes year to discover what is both pleasing and will grow in your yard. Every yard is different, and gardener is in some sense always a beginner, even in their 90th year.

Since houzz took over GW I don't post pics anymore, mmmm! The main reason--98%--is that I don't post pics on any site where the pics become the "property" of the site if I post them. It's not like I'm planning to make money on them myself, but I'm Olde, and I don't see why some commercial site should make money on MY pics! They already "own" all the pics I posted before they bought the site--and I'm certain I "agreed" to that when I signed their "privacy agreement," but I don't plan to add anymore for them to "own." Back before they took over I could track how many hits my pics got and my 'White Nugget' iceplant had over 11,000 hits from when I first posted it many years ago! It didn't really "mean" anything, but it was fun to watch the number! Now I can't do that anymore--now houzz gets the "hits!" Don't get me wrong, I'm glad houzz took over the site since it would have "simply" "gone away" if they hadn't, but I just don't post pics anymore! And I have so many pics from past years, when I was always SO anxious to see color in spring, that I haven't taken even one pic yet this year--so they wouldn't be "current" anyway! But I do have lots of bulbs--have planted well over a thousand since I moved into this house about 15 years ago! And for the last several years Barb and I have been ordering from the Van Engelen "fall sale" and splitting the things we get, and since most of the sale things come in large quantities, 50 or 100, it adds up fast! Barb has a lot of bulbs planted by now too, but she has generally colder and windier conditions than I do, so she's a little behind me--but will be catching up soon I'm sure! If you want to see some pics, here's a thread from 2014, the year before houzz bought the site! Don't have the purple Pulsatilla anymore--it died! But the white one just opened the first flower yesterday! And the little yellow Eranthus haven't bloomed for a couple years! Don't know if they're gone--or if they're just "resting!" Further down the thread are some of the things that will be blooming soon! Don't have the 'Cracker Jack' creeping phlox anymore, and the Arabis died too--and I haven't gotten around to starting a new one! (The Cracker Jack" was replaced by the purple Phlox kelsyi) The primroses pictured are getting really close to opening for this year! And the two-tone hen & chicks in the second batch of pics are just starting to turn "half red!" Skybird https://www.houzz.com/discussions/spring-bulbs-pretty-pictures-dsvw-vd~2129475?n=16