Just be careful what you get - some will rebloom, but many you have to treat like annuals. You'll have a fanatastic bloom next spring, but it'll be a one-time-only thing with bulbs like tulips and hyacinths (?) (don't quote me on that one) unless you dig them back up after the foilage has died off and stick them in your freezer. That's a lot of work for 50 bulbs. Some of the more reliable rebloomers are daffodils, iris and gladiolus. I don't know of others, perhaps other people can help you out with specific types.

Good luck, HTH!

freesias

I bought a bunch of Canna at Costco last year. Great buy!

My cannas are a few years older and still going strong. They have been above the eaves of the house at times. King Humbert I think? I may go to Costco Sunday and see what falls into my cart.

I did pick up some of the iris, BTW.....

Freezias and lycoris.

Rodica

My tulips come up each year in my rock garden. Never have to chill them -- they've been dividing too.

You should chill some bulbs, but don't "freeze" them! They will end up as mush when they thaw!

I have amarylis, dafodils, tulips, gladiolas, and fresia in my gardens.

Good for you, you're the first person I've heard of that has been successful with tulips. Good job!

I bought a bag of the allium, and 2 of tulips. PC is right, for the most part they are like annuals here, at least in my experience. However, I figure I'll get 150 beautiful blooms for 25 bucks, and have cut flowers on the table for Easter from the garden, it just makes me sooooo happy ;)
OH, and I don't bother to dig them back up, if they don't bloom again they become mulch!
Trudi

Beemer, do your tulips that return bloom? What kind are they. My experience with tulips has been that even though they may return they don't bloom because of lack of dormancy to store up energy for blooming. The same with other bulbs that want chilling.

I'm with CissyCat. Even if they don't last forever, they're worth the money and effort for the one time flowers.

I haven't any idea what the tuplips are -- most people just give me a pot and I plant it later -- or I pick up dollar store stuff -- or I just get "willed" everyone's extras!

My back yard gets at least a half dozen hard freezes a winter (frozen over bird bath). Perhaps they get enough chill that way.

I've done tulips a couple of times, not expecting them to rebloom. Generally in my experience, they bloom the first year, just grow foliage the 2nd year, and the third year nothing. Sometimes I just miss the tulips and have to plant some. If you can get them cheap enough it's worth it, even for that one year bloom :)

Easy

Iris is a pretty reliable rebloomer... I wish I had found this website when I was digging up the iris garden... I ended up throwing away over 100 iris... nobody wanted them... I had started with very few and ended up with very many... sometimes daffodils don't come back... they are not always as reliable as I would like... I'm hoping my gladiolus will come back, they are one of my favorites... and thank you for addressing the "freezing" thing... I couldn't wait until I got to the end to say no no no, put in your fridge crisper...
Brittany

Am I too late to plant bulbs now? If not, what do you suggest? I picked up daffodils at Big Lots; they look and feel very solid. Can I trust the sun/shade recommendations on these packages - or is this just another California thing?

TF, you can plant them anytime now and they will be fine. The later you plant the more consideration is needed for location in terms of sun/shade etc. If you don't get them in the ground until the first week of December (I've done this one) they will need shade as they will bloom later and it will be getting too toasty for them. If planted now they should be fine even in full sun situations as they will bloom when the weather is still mild.
HTH,
Trudi :0)