our Sam's has bags of 100 tulips or daffs for 13 and change. They also have boxes of all kinds of things for 14 and change. I got 100 yellow daffs (to finish a planting started 4 years ago) and 60 orange daffs (cause my wife requested them)... Now I just need to find a couple hundred or so "glory of the snow" and some more species tulips and I'll be good (and my front will likely be done (except for digging up and dividing daffs next spring). ~Chills

Hmmm...I was thinking it was Johny Horton's "When it's Spring Time in Alaska....it's 40 below" only replaced with Alberta. (Never heard the Ian Tyson one.) We've got a good 8-10 inches of the "white rain" accumulated on the ground in the last two days...it's extremely wet s***, and my one pine is about three feet shorter than usual with the weight of it all. My tulips are up about 2 inches underneath it. I hope they have good gills. :oP I suppose it could always be worse, at least we have power, and by next week it's supposed to be back up into the double digits. OH and the Costco greenhouse in Red Deer open up on Monday!! All this nasty weather sure hasn't dampened my spirits any...Yesterday I waded out through the half foot of snow and got a large stack of seed trays and spent three hours last night planting several hundred seeds...Don't know what I'll do with 'em all if they all come up...but it sure did cure my spring-blizzard-blues. :-) Verena Sticking my tongue out at old man winter..."Your days are numbered!!" (My one friend's dad used to open the door and spray aerosol cans outside whenever a late storm like this used to hit...)

Agree that tulip bulbs need to be pre-chilled for a set time and temperature for planting in the DFW area but as important, research the correct TIME to plant the bulbs after the chilling has been completed. Note that even if you follow all the rules and chill yet don't plant almost straight out of the chiller, flower production will invariably suffer (in DFW). Most good independent nurseries can give you that timetable as it will/may vary from year to year. I'd also invest in buying your tulip bulbs from reputable garden/nursery sources rather than from the pre-packaged bulb rack at the local mega store or home center where the bulbs and tubers were very likely dug and packed many months before with little care after they leave the grower, especially once they arrive at the store. .

Some areas are absolutely doing better than others, and I would think that will affect how people chose to react when stores reopen, etc. The province I live in is currently considered the safest area in North America - we have had 120 confirmed cases in a population of 775,000, and no deaths (only 2 new cases in the last 20 days). Luckily we have some people in our government who had incredible foresight, and shut everything down hard and fast the middle of March. The government took a lot of abuse and criticism at the time, but I think most people now see how fortunate we have been. Our government has done an extraordinary job, and we have been lucky too. A neighboring province has about 145 cases all linked to one funeral in mid-March. We are so fortunate that something like that didn't happen here with one of our early cases. I work for our provincial government, and they called us into a staff meeting on March 17 and more or less said to most staff 'go home - don't come back until we tell you to'. A few positions were deemed critical so there have been a few of us working, and obviously essential services like road maintenance, social assistance, etc. have been operating at reduced capacity / as needed. A State of Emergency was declared and for the most part, everything was been closed early in March - retail stores (some exceptions - grocery, pharmacy, home repair, auto repair), dentists, restaurants (curb side pick-up allowed), hair salons/spas, parks, day-cares, campgrounds, recreational facilities, optometrists, most offices.... all closed. Non-emergency hospital services, elective surgeries, etc. were cancelled. Nursing homes and hospitals were locked down. Non-essential travel between provinces and the US is restricted. Anyone returning from out of province *must* quarantine for 14 days (and is checked on daily). I, personally, have never stopped going to the grocery store(s) weekly. I've been to Costco and Home Depot. I've eaten take-out fairly often to support my favorite local restaurants. Under the circumstances, I feel very safe. They limit the amount of shoppers in each store, many people are wearing masks, carts are sanitized after each shopper, physical distancing is encouraged with aisles being designated one-way and lines on the floor at the checkout, lots of hand sanitizer available, etc. Since the end of April we have started re-opening. On Friday we moved to Phase 2 which allows retail stores and restaurants to re-open provided they have certain guidelines in place. We are now allowed gatherings outdoors of up to 10 people. Day-cares are in the process of reopening, although schools are closed until the fall. Hospital services are resuming this week. Most offices that have been closed are gradually phasing in a return to work starting this week. There are many changes in how things are being done, but it's starting to feel more normal. It will be interesting to see where we are at in 7 - 10 days. "In New Brunswick — with 120 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 118 recoveries, no deaths and no active cases currently in hospital — it has been a story of what could possibly go right, and Cardy deserves a good deal of credit for it. The province was the first to lockdown, and has been one of the first to open up again. Its nursing homes didn’t become COVID-horror shows. Its government hit it out of the park." National Post: Heroes of the pandemic