Sorry...this area being zone 6, western MA

Well, I'm in CT, but perhaps close enough? :)

I don't plant out tulips in the garden anymore. They just are not reliably perennial for me. I do, however, pot them up in fall and overwinter in the garage, and bring the pots out for touches of spring color.

I have planted gregii and.... darn what were they?... fosteriana? tulips, and they seem to return more reliably. I say "seem" because I planted them as a new gardener and didn't really amend the soil or anything. They did come back nicely for about 4 or 5 years and then just stopped, although strangely, I get one or two every so often. I keep meaning to plant more, now that I know a bit more about what I'm doing.

You really want our favorite bulbs? LOL! This may turn into a looong thread!

Snowdrops - the earliest bloomers for me, sometimes in late January. Wonderful sight for sore (i.e. winter-weary) eyes, and very long-lasting, lovely blooms.

Crocus - and absolute must, somehow, somewhere in the garden. Again, early bloomers for me, usually in early to mid-February, and very cheerful on a sunny winter's day. I plant them in my so-called "lawn", scattered in the front yard.

Daffodils - where do I start? Where do I end? Okay, instead of going through all the different daffs I have, I'll recommend two must-haves, IMO. King Alfred/Dutch Master - huge, big, bold yellow blooms that say "look at me!". And Quail, a late-blooming, long-lasting, fragrant jonquillla. Very beautiful...Okay, three - Fortissimo, another big, bold bright tulip, yellow with an orange cup. Another beauty.

And of course we can't forget scilla, chionodoxa, iris reticulata, snowflakes, grape hyacinths...

:)
Dee

Dee,

THANK you for chiming in...i guess everyone else is on vacation, and not avoiding weeding the border of a created perennial bed! ;p Thanks for the lovely suggestions. Hopefully they will start rolling in!

I'd have to go with allium, although I also love the "minor bulbs" that Dee mentioned. Squill, scilla, chionodoxa, and galanthus ... love them all, especially in woodland settings.

Tulips annoy me by refusing to multiply, and daff foliage lingers so long that I don't like having these anywhere except in a woodland setting, where they can be left alone for a very long time after flowering. They need to be dug and divided after a number of years, which can seem like a chore if they're under trees where the soil is hard to work. My favorites are the smaller, daintier, usually white varieties.

And let me put in a plug for checkered lily - fritillaria meleagris for planting where you'll see them up close. The color and effect are very different from that of most other spring bulbs.

This would probably be a good time to confess that I've been to Holland 3 times and never even considered going to Keukenhof, the giant dutch bulb display garden. I hear it's gorgeous and I'm sure it's ... VERY colorful.

I stick with the standards for bulbs and try to avoid anything I have to dig up and store.

I plant the old fashioned red tulips that do multiply. You have to get an heirloom (specie?) variety. A lot of modern tulips do not multiply. I am told they only last about three years. I have some cheap varieties of mixed colors as well that also make other baby tulips. I don't know exactly what they are but they used to sell by the bag full. Lol.

I have a variety of daffodills including some heirloom frilly kind. It would be difficult to kill them and they are so beautiful in the spring. The trick is to keep up with them for separation and replanting.

The old orange daylily thrives in the yard among the rocks. I cannot dig those out or else there would be more variety there. I try to dig in somewhat and mix them with daffodils and some other plants for more blossom variation throughout the season. If I had a choice, I would like different colors and a mix of bulbs in the area. Without a backhoe, that will not happen.

Crocus are naturalized into the lawn. How I love to see the color in the spring!

Other bulbs I have include tiger lily and oriental lily. Those normally are wonderful but now we have the orangle lily beetle invasion going on.

The casa blanca lily is spectacular! It does not seem to be so attacked by pests either.

Those lilly molly alliums come up every year and have performed for an amazing number of years.

I have regular purple allium which only seem to last about three years.

narcissus poeticus is my favorite classic bulb ... pretty much any fritillaria makes my heart go pitter-pat -- raddeana, pallidiflora, michailovskyi, acmopetala ... so welcome in the spring ... and there's nothing like gigantic alliums to chase away the last dregs of winter.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Marie,

That pic is beautiful. Thanks, everyone, for sharing!

Digging, why wouldn't you go visit the gardens? Although i know i wouldn't be able to...the lust would kill me...LOL or at least make me foam at the mouth for about 24 hours....o_O I'd need a plane to haul everything back!

I don't have tulips on my high priority list here in southeastern Mass (Fall River area) because the basic ones never seem to keep going. But if you want tulips, the ones that have seemed to do best for me, surprisingly enough, are the Parrots. I planted some Flames (red and yellow) about 8 years ago and there are still some returning every year, though not as many as original. I just ordered some more of the super parrots (cream and green) and I hope they do as well.

Nobody mentioned leucojum - a latish blooming bulb looking like a huge snowdrop (huge is relative).

Leucojum Gravetye Giant.

Claire

Welcome back, Marie of Roumania!

I remembered my other favorite weird bulb, Nectaroscordum siculum (aka allium N.s):

Not your traditional colorful tulip by a long shot, but really cute (and tall).

(Aside to ctreynard: I spent the time at the Hortus Botanicus, in Leiden, instead. It's one of the oldest and most interesting botanic gardens in Europe. Can't spend all your time in gardens when you travel with your family, sadly, so you have to pick your targets! Actually my DH and kids would probably have preferred Keukenhof, with its colorful massed bulb gardens - just not my favorite kind of thing.)

Ooh, DTD, that is gorgeous!

Claire, I mentioned leucojum above - I just referred to them by common name, snowflake, because it was easier to type, lol! These are beautiful blooms and quite long-lasting.

:)
Dee

I LOVE CHECKERED LILY! I am thinking of getting some, but I am really invaded by those orange lily beetles. People tell me they go for all of the fritillaria. This year I will probably naturalize snowdrops into the lawn too.

Nectaroscordum siculum were a bust for me. They just never came out as nice as the ones in the photo. They probably need to be grouped more than I placed them.

Nice to see you Marie of Roumania
Dtd,
You are just way too considerate of others, my sister and I made it to both Hortus Botanicus and Keukenhof. I agree totally Hortus Botanicus was a small but amazing garden to visit, I recall being surprised by nearly half of the plant material. Keukenhof was fun in the same way any garden show is fun but in hindsight I probably wouldnÂt make any purchases again? Wouldn't it be cool if there was an outdoor garden show in New England? Admittedly bulbs are not my thing; they are just too difficult to move around once they have been planted. I still regret having purchased and planted in a prime spot green daffodils that were the color green under the sellers growing conditions and bright yellow in mine.

Ah, Dee, I see "snowflakes" now. I think my mind just saw "snowdrops" since leucojum is drilled into my head. Gave me an excuse to post one of my favorite photos, too.

Claire

>Nectaroscordum siculum were a bust for me. They just never came out as nice as the ones in the photo.

To be perfectly honest, they're never as pretty as in the photos in my garden either. In fact, they're hardly pretty at all! I just grow them because they're so darn interesting.

Mine have begun to pop up here and there around the garden, and I assume that means they're happy, but I haven't really found a good grouping for them - they always look a little stand-offish, if that term can be applied to plants. Maybe interplanted with hellebores or some other leafy plant that will help "ground" them, or with small white daffs ... next time!

Which reminds me Claire, I meant to say how beautiful your photo of the snowflake is. But then, your photos are always beautiful! You must have been laying flat on the ground for that one. Entertaining the neighbors again, I would imagine, lol!

:)
Dee

carolyn,
i grow alot of bulbs but few tulips(the Parrots I really like aren't perennial but i put in 2 doz every yr anyway.)

i plant lots of narcissus; many kinds.i always plant muscari as 'marker bulbs' with ALL my bulbs. muscari re-send up their foliage in the fall and that foliage keeps me from accidentally destroying hidden bulbs that are already planted .

The bulbs that I have the most of are:
blue scilla hispanicas; allium bulgaricum (old name for alliums DTD sent photo of); and ornithogolum magnum. these latter are very striking 2 1/2'tall white flower spires that provide long flowering and intermittent vertical spikes of color.they are so very useful for popping in wherever you want a lovely tall wand to alleviate the boredom of a similar-height planting.the other two bulb types serve the same purpose though they are of different color and height. Because i plant large quantities of these 3 bulb types, i buy all three of the above- from Van Engellen (sister co. of Scheeper's)which sells these in minimum quantities of 25 and 50 i believe. The price of their bulgaricums is WAY less than other co's.

the last 2 years i have really enjoyed doing 2 small plantings of allium schubertii, which have these amazing humongous airy starlike lavender spheres. In front of a rich green chamaecyparis they are a real romantic knock out.

best,
Mindy

http://tx2.ssprd10.net/hostedmessage/message.aspx?2267297.1554084.2003028928.3242
WFF fall messageand photos.

I would like to naturalize some snowdrops.