I call myself "The Maniacal Gardener". You are crazy of course, totally out of your mind! :)

Me too! It's nice to be in such good company. I feel sooooo sorry for you......he he...snicker....

I do admire your tulips. Love them but either our hot desert summers kill them or they don't get enough chill at 15F average for weeks, not sure which but they don't do well for me. Daffs, narcissu, yes, but those tulips just don't like it here!

That's okay though, plenty of other plants do. Your garden is lovely by the way!

Lol, I have this same problem too. But I just dug my holes for my roses, carefully removing any bulbs I unearthed, and replanted them in a new spot. Sometimes it's a nuisance but sometimes it works out well because now is the time when I can tell where I need more bulbs because they're up and visible. By fall all the leaves are gone and I don't know where I need to plant more. This way I just move them to where there is an empty spot!

Wow!!! That's a lot of tulips!!!! But then, once the tulips die down, the roses cover up the dead looking foliage. How ingenious!!!!

Carol

I think most of us have the same problem...lol. Beautiful tulips btw.

Your tulips are beautiful! I understand your difficulties though. I do love spring bulbs, but I gave up on them in favor of the roses. I can barely keep up with the work of them and the annuals.

Thanks for the compliments and, um, "sympathy" (smile). It's good to hear other GW friends admit to being crazy, Katie, and I happen to think it's a good kind of crazy. I mean, truly insane gardeners like us don't need to come inside when it starts raining either (like today). I'm glad (and surprised) that daffodils do well in the desert, though come to think of it a lot of bulbs evolved in high deserts in Turkey and such. You might try the low botanical tulips that are the size and timing of crocus, as they like it dry.
You're right, Sharon, by this point I can just dig and replace the bulbs by now to plant the rest of the roses, but for me it doesn't really help fall planting. I just dig where I know not enough bulbs will survive, and again in the fall, if I dig up a bulb to plant another one I just replace it and move on. Carol, it sounds like we have a new convert to bulbs and roses, and Canada should be a good place to mingle those, as JJPeace can testify. Cadiarose, I do appreciate the work of keeping up with both obsessions, and I agree that if I had to choose I'd pick the roses. However, self-sustaining bulbs like crocus or daffodils don't really take any work once planted, and they can be at the back of the bed so you can forget about them once the roses start. Just a thought to maintain the insanity a little longer (smile).\
Cynthia

My winters are not cold enough to grow tulips in lovely swathes, but I buy a couple of dozen of those that catch my eye in catalogues, cool them in the fridge for 6- 8 weeks then plant them in pots. This way I can cheat by hiding the pots among the spring-flowering annuals and perennials.Daffs can be iffy but there are some that I am able to plant ( and forget!) while jonquils do really well. In fact, I noticed that some are already up and budding today even if it isn't officially winter for another couple of weeks. The weather has been weird this year.

Cynthia, Your garden is beautiful!

I used to have 1000 of red tulips, when a nursery had them on sale for $5 a bag of 25, I loaded my car with 1000 of them. It was so pretty in the spring for a week, but now years later I have about 300 or less, something ate them. My tulips are all around trees in the small rose beds, not in the main ones. That made rose gardening a little bit easier.

That's beautiful, Cynthia. If you lived in Florida, you wouldn't have that conflict, as very few bulbs do well here. I do the same chill thing with hyacinths and tulips just to have a few in the house.

Cynthia - I do have bulbs :) but I really, really, really like irises. I'm getting more and more every year!! :)

Carol

Summersrhythm, RoseCanadian - if you ever want to get back into bulb insanity like that again, several companies sell wholesale bulbs, at around $35 for 100 tulips for a wide selection of common varieties, and cheaper toward the end of the season. I tend to use Scheepers, Netherland bulb, and ColorBlends, as well as the Van Bourgondean wholesale catalog. Sure beats the usual $1 per bulb or more in the stores.
I have every admiration for folks in truly warm zones like Ozmelodye and floridarose that do the artificial chill through the winter, since that's too much like work for me. I did that a few years ago for Christmas gifts, and about 10 pots took me as much time as 1000 bulbs in the yard.

And don't tempt me with iris, though they are beautiful - with roses, bulbs, clematis, and daylilies, I have enough obsessions, thank you. Besides, I think my gardens are too moist for iris to be happy - they only bloom at the fringes of the yard where it's driest.

Cynthia

I'm trying to stay with blue irises (any type of blue) and purple. Here's a temptation anyway!! LOL

As to bulbs - I go with Vessey's - they have a lot of varieties!!!

Carol :)

Thanks Cynthia for the shopping info, maybe someday..... :-)

Carol, My blue irises stopped blooming for 2 years, just leaves. Someone told me to replant them, I just forgot to do that. Is it too late to replant them now?

Not looking, NOT looking - okay yes, those are gorgeous and I covet them. But I will resist...

Cynthia