Yes you do plant them on top of one another but you also put the bulbs that bloom later in the season towards the front of the bed otherwise the dying foliage of the earlier bulbs will ruin the display. Or you can make sure that all the bulbs you plant bloom at the same time - early with early and late with late. It should say on the description of the bulbs. Some online or catalogue sellers give that information for just that reason - so that you have things displaying at the same time. But, if you are going to mix bulbs, say early tulips with late tulips, be sure to plant the late in the front of the early otherwise you'll see that problem I mentioned. For example, I had a large bed against a rock wall, approx 20' long and 4' wide. Near the rocks itself, I planted the large King Alfred type daffs. In front of them I planted Poeticas Daffs, and in front of them I planted Hostas. First to show are the King Alfreds (end of April to about mid May), then the Poeticas (mid May to mid June) then the foliage of the Hostas eventually hides all the browning foliage. Unless someone is right on top of the rock garden, no one would ever see the dying foliage. Hope this helps.

mrshal07, first, if you can let us know where you live? Zone 8 is marginal for citrus in the ground, but I don't see any mention of putting anything in the ground - just containers - so I am assuming you would be able to bring your citrus inside at least to a garage temporarily, if you have a cold snap? Just need a little clarification regarding your zone and location. That might give us a better idea regarding cultivar recommendations if things are staying outside. If you can bring your container citrus inside during cold snaps, then cultivar selection based on weather restrictions isn't so important. Okay, as far as potting mix, no, I would not suggest a mix of citrus soil and potting soil. Much too water retentive. Putting "something in the bottom" does not improve drainage, this is a misconception. We have a great recipe for either "511" or "Gritty" mix on our forum, so search for that and copy down how to mix your own very well draining and long lasting potting mix. Hopefully MeyerMike will add his perspective on container citrus, as he is one of our most successful forum members with container citrus in a less than ideal USDA zone (Massachusetts). His trees are gorgeous. Fertilizing is usually done with each watering, 1/2 strength during non-growing season (late fall through early spring), then full strength. Most container citrus folks prefer to use DynaGro's Foliage Pro. I also use it, along with a time-release product with an NPK close to 5-1-3 ratio, along with micronutrients, even with my full-time-outside container citrus with very excellent results. As far as cultivars - if you can bring your citrus inside during cold snaps, then I would pick cultivars you like to eat, or provide juice that you would drink or cook with. So, all are good choices. I would make a suggestion for your grapefruit, though, as grapefruits need some significant heat units in order to sweeten up. So, consider a grapefruit hybrid, such as Oroblanco, Melogold, or Cocktail (which isn't really even a grapefruit, but actually a pummelo/mandarin hybrid, but absolutely delicious, and does not need heat to sweeten.) I would consider a Bearrs lime, as it isn't quite as cold-sensitive as the Mexican (Key) lime. And a Meyer lemon would also be a better choice over a regular lemon as it is more cold tolerant that, say, a Eureka or Lisbon lemon. Satsuma mandarins are lovely, but slower to mature, so perhaps consider another mandarin cultivar, there are many excellent choices, such as Seedless Kishu, Gold Nugget, Page or Tango mandarins (or mandarin hybrids). Rootstock are the "roots" that the cultivar scion gets grafted to, which can provide the cultivar with some significant benefits - size control, more resistance to disease, precociousness, sweeter fruit, more tolerance to cold temps, soil issues, etc. So, you'll find most citrus are grafted. For container citrus, you're better off finding citrus grafted to dwarf or semi-dwarfing rootstock. Four Winds Growers grafts most of the their citrus to a very semi-dwarfing rootstock called Cuban Shaddock, which makes them very suitable to container culture. And, they have every cultivar you've listed. They're a great company, grow beautiful citrus, and many of us on the forum have their trees. There are other good growers out there as well, but not many that you can find who graft to true dwarfing rootstock (which would be poncirus trifoliate 'Fly Dragon'), or certainly no one else I am aware of that uses Cuban Shaddock, probably the next most dwarfing rootstock out there. So, I would definitely look for citrus on at least semi-dwarfing rootstock, if you're shopping locally. If your area can support in-ground citrus, I would suggest going to one of your better garden centers, or even better, a citrus grower if you have one, and talk to them about the cultivars that do the best in your area, especially if you plan on leaving them outside. Just remember, if you have temps in the winter that drop below 40 degrees, you need to consider bringing your container citrus inside or at least, into the garage (with sunlight) for short periods, as container citrus don't have the root protects from cold temps as in-ground citrus have. Patty S. Here is a link that might be useful: Four Winds Growers

Jeff: I didn't mean to criticize you for deleting the post, I meant to complain about how the Houz version of the site is different from the old Garden Web. In answer to your question about what happens next, it takes about 6-8 weeks from the time a flower forms until it becomes a ripe fruit under ideal garden conditions. It's not unusual for the first flowers that form to fall off without forming fruits. Early girls can ripen a little sooner than beefsteak type tomatoes. Also, I would encourage you to stop worrying about a few bugs. Ants and grasshoppers won't hurt your plants, but too much hot sauce or dish liquid might hurt them. As someone said earlier, you're more likely to have problems with diseases than insects, and home made insecticides can make your plants more likely to get diseases by damaging the leaves.

You can use Dirtex to clean your walls. Sanding with a power sander is fine, but you will find that it gets dusty doing it that way. I may use a pole sander for bulk sanding and then use my orbital sander on stubborn drips or areas that hand sanding just isn't cutting it. If you do power sand all the walls, then cleaning them is probably overkill. The sander is going to remove any contaminants that may affect adhesion of the new paint. Be sure to remove any sanding dust before painting.