Those 'cold and hot bulbs' - if you have a utility bed somewhere, you know - a vegie plot that you won't need until later in the growing season (the one you normally set aside for growing the winter greens would be excellent) - plant out into there. Go through your overlooked bulbs and check for any that have gone 'corky'. I know you said you've missed the mould but sometimes they can dry out quite badly. Plant those separately. After a similar situation earlier this year I'm not that ready to write off the little and shrivelled. Plant out in straight rows and label them - big, all-weather labels. Plant as deeply as you usually would. Keep your green thumbs crossed. Some might fail. Some might manage a leaf. Some will shock and surprise you with flowers. I was late planting this year (May-June) and the bulbs weren't 'new from the packet'. Little pips - like your cloves, and some shrunken specimens I had few if any hopes of seeing do anything. No fridging whatsoever. Most of the early Doubles showed up and flowered. Those that didn't flower have healthy leaves. The greigii did brilliantly. A totally 'oh well.Give it a go' black parrot bulb about the size of the top of my thumb - flowered graciously. Menton, poor shrunken blobs - are currently in flower, tall, strong and bouncing back from the spring winds. Others that I put in to 'plump up and grow on' - are budding. The only ones that seem to grump for me are the Darwins. They mutter for two years or more before they relent and flower. For the big project, I'd pick the 'best' bulbs to plant out - and put the others into the cutting garden. Might as well have some for eye candy and plenty for the vases ;-).

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.

Hi Aveo, I have 4 pots of h. papilio and the mother bulb in each pot is the usually 1/2 to 2/3 out of the soil..when first planted..of course the bulblets are all way under. I have yet to repot my clumps, but when they were singles..as they all were once, I just treated them as all my other bulbs..2/3 out of the soil. I think when the time comes to repot, I may be tempted to (at least the first time) just move the whole clump to a larger pot. I know eventually, they will need to be separated, but as they grow outside all clumped together I will put off separating them for as long as I can..not a job for the timid such as myself. I've only got my first two papilio bulbs last year, and now there are at least 5 bulblets in the first pot and 4 in the second. They sure are prolific multipliers!! Of course, if I see that the mother bulb is being dragged down by the kids then I guess I will have to pull them apart..but until then, they will remain a family unit.. I don't suppose I've actually helped you, but I really loved mine when they bloomed.. A few years ago I had a clump of Orange Sovereign that I finally had to separate..they were already in a large pot and since I use clay, I just couldn't handle a larger pot..there must have been at least 6 or 7 good sized bulbs in one pot. All the bulbs were fine, including the mother who had been heaved out of the soil..I gave most of them away and kept 3 of them and they grow on and on. Of course Orange Sovereign is not as special as h. papilio, but the process is the same... Donna

Thanks Daylilydayzed - I've been gardening for awhile but am new to day lilies (just now realizing what I've been missing!) - just recently I have planted (in groups of 3 or 5): "Strutters Ball", "Sunset", "Ruby Throat", "Daring Deception" and "Tiger Kitten". Oh, and good old reliable Stella d'Oro. I was confusing with ASIATIC lilies - which do have a bulb, I believe? Can you apply my question to that? I guess what I am really driving at is, Is it worth it to buy bulbs from places like Spring Hill Nursery or Dutch Bulbs? Or are you better off buying them in pots and putting them in (in season)? Hope that makes sense!