Is your planter on bare ground or directly on a hard surface (eg concrete or a rocky patch)? What's the drainage like? For example - I made a 'tabletop' planter which has a slatted bottom. I lined it with overlapping plastic bags then put in a mix of composts - one of which is very rich. Despite being three feet off the ground, with seeping drainage, and being only 8" deep - the bottom layer of the mix is very 'cluggy'. Further - despite being very well-rotted compost, the growth from the first year was disappointing. Using the same mix for a second year, after weathering, the results have been much better. The leaves. I may have misread. I gained the impression that you had used them as a further 'water-holder' layer. Sometimes buried material can be a bit toxic while it rots. I'd use leaves on the top, as a protective mulch over a serving of, say, blood and bone (but I don't have critters, as such :-)) ) Not buried. (That's not a lot of depth for bigger bulbs to get their roots down. At least four inches above and below the actual bulb, if they have to dodge the frost.) The sand. Nononono. Grit, yes. Sand and compost is for serious water-lovers. Gunnera and pondside plants. 3-5mm sharp grit well stirred through. A good gritty mix encourages root development. If you have mountain streams in your area with shingle beaches - look at the root development of plants growing in that medium. The tops might be stunted but the roots spread far and wide as they forage. If your planter has settled over winter - I'd add some genuine soil. Dirt out the garden. Not subsoil clay. Reasonable topsoil, if you have it. In an outdoor planter of the size you have the soil seems to add 'sturdiness' to the mix and the plants. One bucket of dirt, one of compost, half of grit. Later on, I'd add the ancient cowpats and good garden compost to suit the taste of whatever I was planting. And add an organic mulch if water-loss, or wind is an issue in the garden, once the soil has warmed up and growth is well under way. For now - I'd rescue the perennials and pot them up fairly tightly until they've developed a vigorous root system again. A gritty mix will help for most of them, so long as you water with care. You didn't list what you were growing. For a mix as juicy as you've offered, I'd be growing things such as polyanthus, or Dahlias, maybe Hostas and Dicentra. For something like tuberous Begonia - I'd wait for the second year. If you bought pot-grown perennials and they were slightly root-bound - remember to open the base of the rootball a little so they can start spreading. If they were slips and bare-rooted - don't expect wonders this year. Some can take up to two years to settle in and then shock you by becoming garden thugs :-(. Meantime, you could sneak in a few coloured lettuces and use the benefits tastily! Or try some bedding Impatiens and Lobelia while the soil ingredients settle down.

Iris reticulata will give different shades of blue and, possibly, a 'wine-red' version. If your dappling comes from deciduous trees your timing might let the reticulatas come through flowering and then into good leaf growth before it becomes too shady. Chionodoxa also give a pleasant blue and will be out in flower before the Alchemilla and the Heucheras are in full array. Anemone blanda will give you a pink but you will have to give it some protection as its range is only down to zone 6. They do well in pots. Anemone nemorosa Robinson's is a delicate lavender-blue. It goes quite well with Pulmonaria - particularly those with strongly silvery leaves - and should be fine in your zone. Corydalis and Colchicum might also be worth exploring. If you can provide winter protection - Rhodohypoxis can give a long display in either strong pink or soft. The little double is pretty but only buy it in flower as some of the doubles are seriously more weirdly interesting than genuinely double. And Erythronium revolutum or hendersonii, of course.

Almost all bulbs are capable of multiplying through division or offsets. However they are all adapted to their own environments and in a garden they all have differences in performance. It can really depend on not only the species of plant but on each variety, which has different abilities to overcome problems it faces in the garden. Many bulbs you buy are not well-adapted to your climate and will gradually fade away rather than multiplying. Grape hyacinths will multiply very quickly. Garlic cloves in a garden will multiply quickly. Crocus will multiply quickly. Daffodils will multiply gradually. Ornamental alliums, depending on variety, can multiply slowly or quickly - small kinds multiply more quickly. Dutch iris are very difficult to multiply at all. Asiatic lilies can multiply quickly. Tiger lilies can multiply VERY quickly. Oriental lilies usually multiply slowly. Gladiolus will usually divide into exactly 2 new large bulbs per year, plus a bunch of very small offsets that will take several more years to reach blooming size. The ideal is to get a multiplciation of large, healthy bulbs, or multiplication that favors large bulbs so when the bulbs become overcrowded they naturally stop dividing. This is usually done by growing them in their ideal soil type and with sufficient water. Some kinds of bulbs that are subjected to too much drought or heat stress have a tendency to split themselves up into a large number of relatively small bulbs - too small to bloom well, and in competition with each other, and plus they divide even more the next year and eventually kill themselves off by getting too small. That's especially common with tulips and one of the reasons many kinds fail to return year after year. A few varieties like Darwin tulips, which are known as better perennializers, actually do so because they RESIST multiplying; a large first-year bulb may divide into 2 or 3 blooming-sized bulbs, and subsequently the smaller ones will be less likely to split farther.

I would advise you to pick up a copy of Fine Gardening's special issue on Container plantings. A Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. should carry it. It will give you tons of inspiration for absolutely gorgeous container gardens that will give you pleasure all summer long. Bulbs are very nice, but the vast majority of them bloom for only a couple of weeks and then you have to let their foliage continue to grow and ripen for a couple of months after that, at which time they go dormant (disappear) until next year. You want some plants that will look great all summer long! (You can always plant spring bulbs under the summer plants that will bloom and go dormant before your perennial plants get going in the summer.) Once you get the magazine and read up, take it with you to a good garden center next spring. If it's your first garden, we all want it to be roaring success for you! :)