Typically, bulb companies ship when it is time to plant in your area, so you should be fine planting when you receive your order. Here's what I know about the others: Gladiolas: you'll have to dig and store. Wait until the foliage begins to brown, or as soon after frost kills it as possible. Dig the corms while the stems are still firmly attached. Shake off the soil and let them dry a few hours in the sun. (Be sure to label them and keep them sorted accordingly.) Then remove them to a frostproof garage, etc. to cure for a few weeks. High temps won't hurt them, but they need good air circulation. When the stems come off the corms easily, do that and clean them up (soil), put them into paper bags, a small box, or a flat, always with a LABEL. Store them as close to 40 degrees as you can. You can pack them in sand, peatmoss, etc, but this is usually not necessary. Bearded irises do not need to be dug. Dahlias do need to be dug. Consult the dahlia forum for excellent information. I'm pretty sure that Asiatic lilies do not need digging. If I am incorrect, I am sure someone will chime in. Japanese Iris, Alliums, and Daffodils are all winter hardy. No digging needed.

In your zone, a few lilies will bloom this early. Except for very hot spring years, most lilies (asiatics) will bloom in June. Why not consider allium purple sensation for spring color in may/june ? If you want lilies, select some of the taller asiatic lilies. A good choice would be GRAND PARADISO. It is orangy red, has thick tall stems which do not require staking and which bloom relatively early. They grow 4-5 foot tall. In time, they develop a very large racime (inflorescence) with many flowers -- very impressive. In my yard this would be june, but I don't know your local microclimates.

Your lilies have done what lilies do - once they've bloomed out they won't reflower this season. For now, just snip off the "candelabra" arms where the flowers were attached so it doesn't set seeds. Let the stem gradually yellow and brown out over the season and cut it back in the fall. I usually leave an inch or two of the stem sticking out of the ground so I know where they are and don't accidentally dig or plant over them. They don't need a lot of water; don't like their feet wet which could cause the bulbs to rot. Pixies multiply, so you might well get several more stems next season, each with a nice bud count. The old salvia blooms can be pinched off, removing only the uppermost pair of leaves in the process. This will help the plant stay bushier and could well result in a rebloom. Any reblooming won't be as lush as the first. Am a little unsure of the water requirements for salvia, but they have a pretty good root system so perhaps a once a week deep watering is better than every other day. The ones I have are established and we've had fairly regular rain. I just cannot recall if salvia gets a little wilty looking when they need water.

Well I happened upon this website & thread because I had a conversation with a fellow gardener today about her lilies and now many of my lilies "reverting", and the most common colour they seem to become is orange. I have HUGE clumps of lilies, and loads are orange and I don't remember planting that many orange ones, so I kinda wondered if some didn't revert from something else, but now I KNOW they have, because I had one huge clump that were called Kaveri I had bought a few years ago. Kaveri is yellow with red in the centre of each petal. They were so huge & thick last year that I thought I would probably have to divide them this year.... and I was going to dig out some of the other clumps that are orange to plant the Kaveri lilies. Well, my Kaveri lilies all started opening yesterday ... and they are ALL orange. There is no way that I made a mistake or that little bulblets from other lilies could have gotten in there, they were a separate & distinct clump. I am honestly so upset I can hardly see straight. I have another few clumps of lilies that are pink with freckles -- which I now know were LA or OT lilies in various colours, but the blooms are all pink and MUCH smaller than they used to be, so they have also "reverted". My friend had ivory coloured white double-petalled lilies, and they are all now single orange ones (and she doesn't like orange, so she knows she never bought them,a nd her neighbourhood is new, there were no other gardens there before) Do reverted lilies ever come back to their proper state? Does anyoe know the cause? I'm wondering if maybe the parent they use to hybridize is a drought-tolerant Asiatic, because it's been incredibly dry here, and maybe it figures it needs to revert to save itself? I don't know, but I am so upset. I'm hoping that the other Kaveri clumps don't revert! This shows what Kaveri is supposed to look like https://www.longfield-gardens.com/plantname/Lily-Kaveri