I'd be happy to trade all of them with you...

I do agree that growing bulbous plants and other geophytes from seeds is surprisingly easy. Many start flowering within 3 years...and some, such as anemone coronaria, ranunculus asiaticus, albuca, ipheon, calochortus, cyclamen, watsonia, can be flowering by the second year (or first summer). For some flowers, growing from seed is the only way to get hold of flowering plants. Dahlia, for example, will flower in the first season (from seed) and is a good way to get hold of species such as d.coccineaY or d.merckii. You mention t,sprengeri, Danny. These gorgeous tulips (my favourites of all) cost eye watering sums of money (If they can be found at all) because they have teeny bulbs with dropper roots which pull them deep into the soil (even escaping through the drainage holes in the pots). A nightmare for growers so they rarely, if ever, feature in merchant's inventories. However, you can sow them direct, somewhere which will be undisturbed, ignore them and they will be up in flower in 4years...with no effort whatsoever apart from the initial poke in the soil. Agapanthus can also be in flower by the third season. They don't need windowsills - I grow them on my outdoor potting table, on top of my worm bin, sitting on the empty winter benches and, of course, in the (currently freezing) greenhouse. I am a tad concerned for a bunch of current tiny seedlings...which are frozen solid. I put a tiny paraffin heater in the greenhouse...and am doing the 'candles under terracotta pots' trick. Still, the seed sowing season has just got going so any losses now can be re-sown later. I don't get the HPS seeds until March, so have to do a quickie forced stratification to kickstart a few of them into growth...or will wait till autumn. There are only a couple of months in the year when I am not sowing a few seeds... Have fun doing yours, Prairie - there are not many better treatments for seasonal drear, than sowing hope.

MY idea for bulbs is I take a big bag mix all the buls in the bag then throw them all over where I want bulbs. I think it is a really pretty way to enjoy the early part of the growing seaon before all the other perennials get going. I love the giant alliums nad usually use those in a bunch in a bed alone except for ground cover . The deer eat some so do the squirrels it just is nature and I have never found a spray that keeps either away. You can do a mtel chicken wire layed on the bulb bed that helps and the bulbs grow through it. Barberry planted in spots keep deer at bay. It is always an issue with plantings but so worth the work.

"...but it looks like I’m not the only one who opted not to add bulbs this year. I think this season I decided I just wasn’t into bulbs, especially tulip bulbs, for all the effort and inconsistent rebloom." Nice to see you on the board again LaLennoxa :0) I don't do a lot of bulbs. I struggle with placement of bulbs, mainly because of the foliage and actually being able to see the bulbs. The foliage just isn't attractive as its dying back, and depending what it is it may not die back until mid to late May -- which is the beginning of high season here, I don't want the view mussed up with floppy yellowing dying foliage while other things are coming into full blooming glory. So I've focused on buying early-blooming cultivars and few tulips since those are just expensive deer food and re-bloom is inconsistent, as you mentioned. Except for the species tulips - those bloom consistently, if the deer don't get to them. Last year I planted some species in the middle of the bed next to the house, the deer don't go up that close to the house (yet...), so I did enjoy those out the window. Early bloomers, though, so the foliage didn't bug me. I've took to planting crocus in the lawn last year -- I saw some random ones pop up (squirrel-planted or seed-germinated, IDK) and I thought it looked charming. I didn't get much bloom in the spring, though. We'll see this coming spring. Crocus are relatively inexpensive, so no big deal if the critters got them.