WOW! I am so glad that I am not the only one! LOL! I bought some tulip bulbs last fall, and I was going to plant them in containers. However, I never got round to doing that. I left the bulbs in the unheated (but insulated) garage, which was in the mid 30's to low 40's during winter. About a month ago, I planted the bulbs in some containers, and now they are sprouting very well in the garage! My questions are: 1. When will it be safe to take the containers outside? It can still go to low 30's here at night. 2. How likely are they going to bloom this year, given that the bulbs were chilled in the garage? I am quite surprised by how well they are sprouting! Thanks!

Beware of using bone meal if you have doggies that will have access to that area. I once planted tulips, placing some bone meal in each planting hole. My 3 furbabies did not rest until they had every newly planted tulip dug up, trying to get to 'the bone'. Just try and keep your bulbs as cool as possible, and then plant asap once the area is ready. Sue

Oh flora - NO buttercups?! (Lucky you!) Freesias are fine in a silty or somewhat sandy soil and don't mind some clay content so long as they aren't waterlogged over winter while they're coming into leaf. However - if you bought the big florists' varieties with the coloured flowers you must provide frost shelter unless you're in zone 9b or above. And some stem supports would be useful, too, because they can be tall and heavy and flop outrageously while they're flaunting. If you're growing the little yellow-blotched white ones with the pleasant scent - they're hardy and sturdy in 9a for sure. The Ranunculus with the big flowers like turbans need a deep soil and excellent drainage - and plenty of matured compost. They're a greedy flower - just like their pesky pasture relations. (Only the best manure patches for Them.) They have a mass of fine-hair roots out of all proportion to their scrawny little claws. 'Deep soil' means either a raised bed of 18" high, or digging down and loosening for at least 18". Protect your amended soil and topsoil if you need to do this. Scoop it out onto a sheet of plastic while you are loosening up the next layer down using a strong gardening fork. Just push the fork into it and wriggle it to break up the stiff soil. Then put the top soil back, add any amendments, and water it to settle the soil and get the soil life going again after the upheaval. Do not mix the two different soil layers. The top one is where most of the food and soil life are found. For fertiliser you can use one part superphosphate, one part blood and bone, and a spritz of sulphate of potash mixed through that amended soil before planting. Think in tablespoons - not poundweights - about an ounce of the mixed up brew scattered dry over a square yard and lightly forked through the top few inches before you plant your Ranunculus claws.

Preamble: My gardening style could be politely termed 'semi-organised chaos'. (The neighbour warns his kids about lofting their tennis balls over the fence - 'it's a jungle in there!' Ha!) So the daffodils hang out with a sequence of perennials, mostly: Hosta, Astrantia, Saxifrage, Libertia, Clematis integrifolia, polite Tradescantia, Origanum, Athyrium, Thalictrum, and bulbs that flower later such as Tritonia, Freesia, Ixia, Albuca, and the occasional calla. The 'worst' leaf problem comes, for me, from the very earliest - such as 'Erlicheer' - whose leaves linger until nearly Christmas and they're too big to disguise, so I pretend they're not there and let the Aquilegias, miniature roses, and true Geraniums divert the eyes. (It mostly 'works'...I hope.) If I use annuals I tend to go for plants such as petunia, verbena, and Impatiens because I am a lazy waterer for the in-ground plants. The plus, for me, is that the perennials are well-established now and quickly cover the daffodil sites with leaves without encroaching on their actual space; so the soil stays protected and slightly damper - which suits several of the cyclamineus sorts. And they're at rest when the daffs are heading toward the sun. The annuals usefully provide colour spots and continuity. I'd propose using both.