Grape hyacinths have the habit of sprouting foliage in the fall.. Don't know about the others, though.

"Forcing" bulbs is the process where WE decide when we want the blooms to appear, as opposed to when mother nature would let them appear. If you live in the deep south, you know that amaryllis bulbs are hardy here and when planted in the ground, will bloom naturally in early summer. Yet, they are commonly given as gifts and brought into bloom in December. The process that makes them bloom in December is called "forcing". Now, as hopflower said, lots of bulbs NEED a long period of chilltime during winter in order to bloom in the spring (or anytime else, for that matter). That is why they are chilled. Tulips and hyacinths simply won't bloom for us here in the deep south without 2 to 3 months of chill time in the fridge before they are planted. (Because our winters are not cold enough or long enough to do it naturally.) You are right. You can order bulbs pre-chilled. However, you will pay extra for this service, and if the catalog doesn't specifically say "pre-chilled", you can assume they are not. So... what does all this mean for you? If you want daffodils, do a little research and find out which ones will blooms well for you in your area without needing to be dug up and chilled every year: there are many. The Southern Living Garden Book has a good list in it, and there are others floating around, as hopflower said. If you want tulips or hyacinths, buy them now. Put them in the lower part of your refrigerator, but not in the fruit drawer, for 8 to 10 weeks. Then plant them in the ground. It's okay that that is after Christmas. They will then come up and bloom for you when mother nature tells them to. Once bloom is done, pull the tulips up and throw them away. You'll never get them to bloom again, although the leaves might return each year for years. Let the hyacinth leaves turn yellow, cut them off, dig up the bulbs and keep them until next year, when you put them back in the frige and start the whole process over again. General tips: Let all bulb foliage turn yellow and begin to die before cutting it off or you'll kill the blooms for next year. Many times daffodils will have a big bulb and then smaller bulbs attached to it at the bottom (sometimes called "noses"). You can break them off and plant them separately. They may or may not bloom the first year, but will come up, make foliage, gain size, and bloom in subsequent years. Or, you can leave them attached, and you may have more than one bloom stalk come out of that same spot in the ground the first year. If you are planting in clay, loosen the soil with manure, compost, etc. to improve drainage or your bulbs will rot. If you plant crocus, you need to know that they are a favored food for squirrels who will dig them up and eat them forthwith! (If gardening was easy everyone would do it. :) Enjoy! Learn! Try new stuff! Look forward to spring!

Onionology is complicated. Will try to clarify a little: First a little background: "onion" is a huge catch-all imprecise category encompassing a highly diverse clan, allium cepa and other allium species as well. What we are talking about here are bi-annual bulbing onions, grown from seed. All varieties of bulbing onions ultimately derive from the so-called "spanish" onion. They fall into two rough categories, long-day and short-day, based on how much daylight there is around the solstices where the plant is growing. So bulbing onions are highly sensitive to photo period. The first most important thing to know is whether your latitude is "short" day or "long" day. As it happens, Kentucky is kind of in the middle, either might work though long day is probably more likely to do well. There are also a few hybrid varieties called "intermediate" day that might do best of all for you. Short-day varieties are sown in fall and come to full size in late spring. They require more than just low latitude, they also require a mild winter climate, about z7b or warmer, so some regions of KY might work and others not. Long-day are sown soon after the winter solstice and planted out in early spring and are full size in mid to late summer, depending. An exception is the walla-walla which is adapted to the PNW and I think there may be one or two others long-days that can be fall-sown in mild northern climes. So the infamous "sets" are small bulbs grown from seed and then planted to grow for the plant's second season. The plant really wants to bolt and grow seed rather than a bulb. Sets are a scam perpetrated by seed companies. They are mostly a waste of time and space. Buy plants grown from seed in texas next year, they come at just the right time for planting out and the results will be far better.

iris_gal, I have no clue if any of them have them year round. I'm in Pittsburgh, PA btw. I've been to three nurseries near my house and two of them don't really have anything planted outside. One is at a hardware store and is empty already for the year. I couldn't even find cheap long pots (troughs I call 'em) to plant my begonias in so I just stored them. The second one is an actual nursery and is somewhat small compared to what I'm use to at home. They are all cement/asphalt outside and everything is potted. They close for the winter season as well I think. They haven't yet this year. I forget when they do. It seems every time I've tried to ask a question there I get someone who doesn't know squat. The third one I've only been to once and wasn't all that impressed with. Maybe if I go during the regular season instead of the end of the season in search of vermiculite (sp?) for my Dahlia and Begonia tubers. All they had were pumpkins and mums and a few herbs really. Oh and one little discount place near the house where we bought cedar. I got my Verbena there since they were so cheap. They really aren't a nursery, they just have a few things outside their main building. Their cedar was 3 for $10 though! I really miss the nursery at home! They were so friendly!! They'd walk around and ask if you needed help and actually knew about everything!