Im so glad you posted this! I was just at hd, and planning my tulip extravaganza for next year. I have only planted them once, and was so upset they never returned(had no idea some dont!) I have a walkway leading to the front door, and i plan on getting the pastel mix at hd and filling the walkway with it. I might use daffodils too. I love hyacinths but why are they so pricey?
When i lived on long island i passed by a beautiful yard completly naturalized with crocus bulbs! It was so pretty, i think i may start adding bulbs to our front lawn too.
If i do get daffodils i like the white and pink ones. I have a red bick home, and dont care for the yellow of the regular daffodils against it.
And i think im throwing in a couple alliums too, they are neat! My favorite though is tulips!

Of those you listed, the only ones that I regularly have success with is selected varieties of alliums. They are my favorites, and the ones I plant usually do very well and return for me. I don't know why, but most bulbs don't grow and bloom well here, and do not return. I planted daffs a few years ago, and they return well. Nell helped me choose which ones would do well for me.

We enjoy amaryllis, and I force hyacinth, paperwhites, and a few other things to give as gifts. I guess it is time to order them too?

We have nothing on our shelves here yet.

Janie

I like tulips, I have several in my yard, along with alliums, daffodils and added some fritallarias last year. The thing is I`m conflicted about tulips. I love to have different colours each new season, however, I feel guilty about digging out the old ones to replace them. I know the Dutch generally treat their tulips as annuals - but I can`t get past the guilty feeling about removing last year`s bulbs. Anyone here have the same issuesÃ

I just started planting Tulips again last year. We have to deal with fire blight up our way so for insurance they should be dug after they've died down, replanted in another location in the fall. One tulip I've had for years in a half barrel is 'Daydream' never had the blight and they have even multiplied.

If I want to have tulips in the same spot I plant them in a two gallon pot, sink the pot pulling it up after they have finished blooming and put them somewhere else to die down.
Then I sink another two gallon pot with something else in for the summer, replacing it with a newly planted Tulip pot in the fall.

So tulips are going to be the bulb for me this fall (maybe a few Hyacinths :o), I have lots of Muscari, Snowdrops, Spanish Bluebells and Crocus. I've only have a few of the miniature Daffodils so will probably pick up a few more this fall. I just received some English Bluebell seed which I plan to winter sow, looking forward to having some of those.

Annette

I was just at Lowe's to buy a soil test kit and saw they have bulbs for sale, mostly King Alfred Daffs and hyacinths and lots of tulips.

I have lots of daffs and some grape hyacinths. I don't do tulips because the moles eat the bulbs before they have a chance to bloom. I may try the half whiskey barrel filled with tulips this year.

I was thinking of posting a similar thread, but Nell beat me to it! Nell, what is that beautiful flowering shrub/tree in your pic?

Yeeeeess! I am CRAZY about Tulips! I have better luck with them than daffs and Hyacinths. The Daffodils don't like me. :-( I think I might disturb them too much during the year by digging and such. Hyacinths get smaller and smaller each year here. So wonderfully scented, but after awhile I get tierd of re-planting.

I love tulips. I order some from Brecks once and awhile, when they have a coupon. And I always pick up at least one package of interesting tulips in fall. In fact, I plan to go to Lowes later and see if they have any. I just picked some up last week at Wal-Mart. They had a lily-flowering tulip, which I have been wanting to try for so long.

And a couple of weeks ago I picked a few up at a nursery. They are those cool kind with red mottling on the tulip foliage. I am really falling in love with these kind; they give some interest even before the tulips bloom. Last year I was given some species tulips. They are so cute, and smell nice! I want more of them this year.

I don't change out the tulips yearly. I want them to be perennial and clump. I like all different colors and kinds. I use to dislike planting tulips because they did not provide instant gratification. But now I don't mind at all. I get so excited thinking of the spring show. After a long, bleak winter it is so wonderful to see color again!

I need to try Fritillaria again. I bought one once, but it never came back. I want to try Winter Aconite someday. Anyone grow it?

Do you guys like to plant bulbs in singles, or en masse? I like to plant groupings of tulips, like in 3's or 5's. I think it gives more of a pop of color than just one here and one there.
CMK

3's and 5's are nice -- 9's and 15's are better. I like trickles and rivers, too. Uneven lines can run down a hill and spread out at the bottom, or start wide and go down to a point. It's too many when there are 300 to plant, not nearly enough when they bloom.

The tree in question is a Camellia sasanqua, Christin. Over 35 years time, what was a shrub grew into a tree form. It starts blooming before Thanksgiving and lasts past Christmas here. Camellia japonicas take up after Christmas.

I hope everybody in cold zones plants lots of Tulips and everybody in warmer zones plants lots of Daffodils and all of us plant some new Lilies for a glorious spring and summer. I forgot to mention them before. Lilies bloom in summer but can be planted with the other bulbs.

Ianna, can't you dig cured bulbs and replant them elsewhere, in your climate? Tucked back somewhere, they should bloom really well after they rest a year. The bulbs divide the first year, then plump up and you have two. If I lived in a cold climate, I'd work at keeping them going. Here, they succumb to either disease or rodents and don't get nearly enough chill, though I've had rebloomers in the past before I knew it wasn't possible.

Double potting, Annette, they do that in Florida a lot. Another trick I'm contemplating.

Nell

Thanks Nell. SO SAD. The shrub does not grow in my zone.

I remember your spring pics with the 'river' of white daffs, Ice Follies wern't they? Glorious!

Guess what I just bought? No, no, aside from chocolate chips. Yup! More Tulips! I bought a few more black ones, some multi-stemmed 'Mery Go Round', and some new ruffled 'Rai'. I can't wait to plant them. The store also had some butter colored Crocus, winter Aconite, Imperial Frittilaria, and 'Lady Jane' Tulips. I think I might have to go back sometime soon... ;-)
CMK

Had to respond to this. My bulbs just arrived from Holland today-earlier than usual.

Being married to a Dutch DH, of course we grow bulbs: mostly tulips-lily, fringed, Rembrandt, Darwin, doubles, the new giant, etc. I think my favorite is the plain ol' Darwin.

We plant 300+ fancy and Darwins in the "Welcome Garden" every year in clumps of 10. They come in packs of 10 directly fron Holland. Every year, we order them at the Tulip Festival in Orange City, IA. Yes, the fancy ones, in fact most tulips are annuals now.

I would like to find some of the old fashioned perennials, I suppose they may be species tulips. Has anyone found good species or pernnial bulbs anyplace?

We grew 'King Alfred' daffys, but quit planting them, cuz we always miss their bloom, since we snowbird. We had a lot of clumps, but I don't even know if they still bloom.

I lined the front beds with grape hyacinths (Muscari). I had to replace a bunch every year and finally decided they just don't do well enough here. My border always had holes in it, so I just let them die out.

Alliums are a different story and if I get the right cultivar they are wonderful and winter hardy.I love doing
paperwhites & amaryllis in the winter and seeing the little scilla early in the spring. I enjoy the neighbor's crocus, but have no success with it here.
gramma jan

All this is inspiring me to plant some bulbs this fall. I've tried daffodils a couple of times since moving to TX but hardly any grew and only a couple bloomed . . . and they were so reliable up north.

Janie: What kind of allium do you grow? I got a bag at HD a few years ago, and not one came up. I love globe shaped blooms (like agapanthus) and I'm determined to have some next spring. I've made up my mind to settle for onions if I can't have anything fancier.

I just placed three large bulb orders, because I'm selling to a florist next year.

Fall planted:

Ranunculus - White, salmon, red and pink
Daffodils - "Winston Churchill", which is a double white with creamy yellow accents.
Tulips - Singles, doubles, lates and earlies in every color. I'm trying to tap the wedding market, so I have at least 500 tulips on the way. I have three different white tulips that will bloom at different times to maximize cutting potential.
Lilies - Asiatics in every color and 25 "Stargazers"
Peonies - One each red, pink, and white and 5 "Bowl of Beauty"
Crocus and muscari - I placed an order for these this past spring and I can't wait to get them in.

Spring planted:

Glads - I placed an early order for about 1200 glad bulbs with several companies.

This doesn't include the 8 trays of perennial plugs and liners I ordered that will arrive this spring nor the seed packets I have on the way or sitting in wait.

Whew! Anyone want to come help? LOL

Can't wait for spring!
I don't generally buy bulbs in fall. I buy up all the 'gift' bulbs that the stores sell over Christmas. After the holidays I go out and buy everything that's on clearance, grow them over winter then plant them in the fall. Works well. Oh, except the deer ate all my tulip buds! >:-/ Of course, they were feeding two babies, so...

scully~If I get what you're saying, you plant the potted up bulbs into the ground in fall, right? I hope that's what you meant. I'm going to try that this year, with some early 'Tete-a-Tete' daffs, and allium 'Purple Sensation', that I had to relocate when I rearranged my gardens. What worked for the naked lady lilies is, I waited until the stalks came up and planted them where I wanted, tucked behind shrubs and near a large hosta. These I will have to plant on blind faith, hoping I've picked the right spot. Oh, I guess that's really how I do it every year, LOL.

Treelover,

Don't give up on the daffies! You just need to find the right varieties that do well in a hot (and humid?)climate. Tazettas do well here in SW GA, some blooming as early as Christmas. Campernelli, Thalia, Silver Chimes, February Gold, Geranium, Erlicheer (a double, very fragrant Tazetta), Sweetness, Ceylon, Barrett Browning, Tete-a-Tete, Bridal Crown, Monal and Kedron have been in my garden for four years and have bloomed every year. I find that the big box stores sell varieties that may bloom well the first year planted, but then don't perform well subsequent years. Old House Gardens (although "pricey") lists and sells varieties that perform well in the south. John Scheepers also offers a good variety of daffies. An informative book about growing daffies in the south is Daffodils in Florida by Linda M. Van Beck and Sara L. Van Beck. Although the book is specific to daffies that perform well in Florida, I believe that you might find it helpful.

gramma jan, about the Rembrandts; have you had success with receiving colors other than red/yellow or red/white? When I planted Rembrandts one time years ago, they bloomed not only those colors but purple/white and dark red/orange. The last two times I've risked spending the money on them I ended up with only the red,yellow,white combinations.

Thank you, aunt-tootie, for the names & book recommendations!

I'm not surprised that the big box offerings didn't do well for me. I should have known better than to buy them there. It is humid here, as well as hot . . . but I'm wondering now if I was trying to grow types that require a cold winter.

Aunt Tootie, thanks for posting and welcome to Cottage Garden forum. Have I missed other posts from you? Will you post photos of your garden, which must hold lots of pretties from this sub-tropical climate. I'm guessing you're within 100 miles of me, here at the center of the universe between the Rivers in the general direction of Lake Seminole. You could be closer to Caroline (trailrunner, in Alabama) than to me.

Tree-lover, as a general rule with several exceptions, the smaller daffodils persist best for me. The tazetta Martinette lasted only a couple of years, while the triandrus Hawera goes on and on and on. Start with a few of recommended cultivars and add the ones that persist as years go by.

Nobody's mentioned good drainage, important in my climate.

Oh, forgot to mention what an ambitious project Backyardgrown has underway. As I said before, there are 'way too many bulbs when we're planting, never enough when they bloom. I'm guessing you'll be planting your bulbs in rows and use some machinery to help with planting so many? Do you prechill your tulips in NW MS? I don't think my mother ever prechilled tulips in north GA.

Nell

A few years ago I read that Darwin Hybrid tulips like Apeldoorn will return for a few years in the South if they are planted deeply enough. I have heavy somewhat amended clay and put the bulbs down at least 8". They did bloom 3 Springs. NC State Hort. published a list of tulips that are more likely to return a season or two in Southern zones 7-8 - I'm adding the link.

Last fall I ordered Candela, Stresa, several Apeldoorns and Parade in red, yellow, red and yellow from Terra Ceia and Tulip World. That saturated color in March and April is such a joy - hope they return next Spring. In the meantime, I ordered Clusiana Chrysantha, Kees Nellis, Lady Jane, West Point. Also ordered Dutch Iris and Narcissus Actaea.

Ice Follies daffs were already planted by the hundreds at my house when we bought it, and they are bulletproof here in clay, tree roots, you name it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulips for NC