JRR Tolkien and H P Lovecraft numbered amongst my favorites (and Carlos Cassentas' brujo series; I know the spellings off)...

So - I go to Ace to pickup a couple more bales of straw. MUST get Crape Myrtle put to bed for winter!!

DRAT!!!! No freaking straw. Oh well, I am here. Let's check the bulb prices. WHOA!! 75 % off.

Hmmm.... well, they didn't have straw and I would have spent 12 $ for that, so maybe I will pick up a few more bulbs to make the trip worth while. Hey - I was gonna spend the money anyway, right???

Note that I had already picked up 45 Daffodil bulbs at 50 % the other day. Needed to plant them in one of my new beds.

Sooooooooo, half an hour later I picked up:

90 more Mixed Daffodils (45 were far too few - 135 will be just right. A nice odd number!)
100 Muscari - my wife loves it so I can use them to rationalize the entire purchase
75 Botanical crocus - wife loves these too (more justification ) and they ARE Botanical - so they will naturalize much easier and far faster than the hybrids.
20 Botanical Narcissi - Minnow - ditto on naturalize
20 " " Martinette - ditto on naturalize

So I walked out with a sense of satisfaction cause I had SAVED SOOOOOOOO much money. And besides, its only 305 bulbs. Not like I bought 2,000 at full price.

Now I just have to get them in the ground before it freezes. OOPS!!! 5 days in the 20s!! Oh well, that is just the overnight lows. It will nice and warm when I plant them and the little guys will go quickly.

My amaryllis came today. Yay! MIL was happy with hers. I'll look at mine when I get home.

David! Your garden is going to be beautiful next spring! I keep looking at the VE sales everyday. I'll finally get some time this weekend to check our local nurseries, and I hope I can find some good sales.

Kelli, I'm glad your Amaryllis arrived safely, please pictures of when they bloom next spring.

Today, I did a very bad thing! I needed bulbs to put in 3 pots that I'm planting for work.

The day started with a trip to my favorite whole sale nursery to get 8 flats of pansies, and 3 flats of snapdragons, most of them for me, some for the pots.

On the way home I at stopped at HD, to get 1 bag of tulip bulbs, and 1bag of daffodils to split between the 3 pots. HD had spring blooming bulbs 50% off. I just couldn't help myself😳


I spent hours in the front yard digging up cannas, and pulling out Impatients and Dragon Wing begonias, to prepare the beds for planting Tulip Blushing Lady, Renown, and Pink Cubed with the pansies.

I saved some of the begonias, and all of the cannas and took them to my basement. I came across a pot of Paperwhites that I planted last year, and forgot to discard the bulbs after they bloomed. I removed the leaves when they were dormant months ago, and had forgotten they were there. They've not been watered for months, and this is what I found. I wonder if they'll bloom again?

Got all the bulbs I was NOT gonna buy in - finished in the rain yesterday ~ 38 degrees, rain and wind. Messy digging the planting holes. But I did get 5 separate areas planted and it will look swell come Spring. I almost went back cause I was was a few bulbs short. NAH!!! I changed the plan a bit.

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-30-
FINIS

Ohmygosh and the insanity continues!

I love pastels mixed with a darker tones and I think the hyacinth mixture you bought will be super, Annette.
I mixed similar colours a couple of years back and really enjoyed the result, at least it suited my taste buds.


Woodstock is the darker purple cultivar her.


Purple sensation should be the darker cultivar here, otherwise similar mix.

Unfortunately the first year these have had health issues compared to the more usual (at least they are more usual here in Sweden) blue, white and pink hyacinths. They didn't come back very well this past spring. Not entirely sure of the cause, but possibly a bacterial infection entering through the leaves as they turned to mush after flowering. That first year we had a very wet spring and the bed was newly prepared with mostly purchased soil, so had not had time to settle and form a capillary connection with the underlying sand so was a bit wetter as a result. On the other hand I had blue and white hyacinths in another bed, with the same soil, also newly prepared and those leaves also turned to mush, but the bulbs survived much better, with only a few losses.

A learning experience as they say, although I couldn't pinpoint the cause, so not sure what I learned However I do really miss this mix, so will try to rescue the brave survivors next summer and replant in sandier soil as it can't hurt.

William, that is a beautiful combo of colors! I wouldn't have thought to try the 4 together for some reason- the results are so wonderful I see why you want to achieve that again.

Thanks William! I'm looking forward to seeing these plants next spring.

Your combinations of hyacinths are gorgeous. I had the same experience with the leaves of some if the hyacinths becoming mushy. I did remove the leaves as I found them. I hope the bulbs are ok. We'll see how the do next spring. I hope your bulbs are fine, and that you'll have a good return with blooms next spring.

@William The very tall plant with buds, are they frittilaria? I haven't ever grown them to know what they look like. The hyacinths are beautiful.

I'm very happy you all enjoyed this mixture as it was one of my favourites

Annette, I did remove my leaves as well, but it didn't help, hopefully you will not have my problem as I beilieve there can be many reasons for the foliage to become mushy.
As I haven't had any problems with mushy leaves this year, I'm hoping for the best and I'll hold my thumbs(as we say here in Sweden when we are wishing someone good luck) for your bulbs as well

In any case this mixture is sure to be resurrected in some form as I'm no different from other gardeners, and in a few years I'll only see possibilities and will have forgotten all about this failure. I'm thinking annual lifting, cultivation in pure sand, oh boy there are endless possibilities!!!!

@Kabby - these are indeed Fritillaria imperialis and if I'm not mistaken these are young stems of the cultivar 'Rubra'. They are reasonably easy to grow, provided you have excellent drainage, but they may need some extra care to get the best out of them. Some plant the bulbs on the side, to prevent that the little hole in them to become waterlogged. I'm not entirely sure if this is true or not as one would think that the capillary movement of water would prevent this from happening. That said I still plant them on their side

For the best rebloom and the largest plants they like a dry warm summer and preferably annual replanting in autumn in fertile soil. I suspect the warmth wouldn't be a problem for you, but unsure how dry your soil is in summer. If the soil is moist it's safer to dig them and store in dry sand or similar, but it's not absolutely necessary. In nature they don't always bloom every year, but in cultivation we can fertilize them rather heavily and divide them every year to get big bulbs (they can be 40cm+ in size yielding two stems, depending on the cultivar)

Cultivar choice is important, as some grow much better than others in certain conditions. 'Aurora' has never bloomed for me and yields small bulbs, but the old 'Lutea' and the newer 'Garland Star' has been superb. 'Rubra' has been a bit smaller here and 'Striped Beauty' has had good size, but so far not been a good increaser. One really needs to try a few different cultivars as it depends on ones local condition and climate which one will do best.

gemini_sage said:William, that is a beautiful combo of colors! I wouldn't have thought to try the 4 together for some reason- the results are so wonderful I see why you want to achieve that again.

William I did plant a yellow fritillaria last fall, on it's side coincidentally but it was a no show. I have water loving plants mixed in with bulbs in all my beds, so dry isn't an option, not for long anyway. I do value your excellent information though, if I should think about trying them again.

What a pity, Kabby and especially as these are usually rather expensive, one is less likely to try again . However your not alone in this as I know many have made similar experiences, myself included. Even if they survive the first winter, they man not bloom (bulbs sold are sometimes too small or stressed from handling) or they rot the following summer.

Of course it may not only be your soil moisture that was the problem, there is also some risks with shipping and handling these as well. They do easily rot if bruised and I suspect that many bulbs that are sold have dried out a bit more than ideal as the bulbs while being sensitive to excessive moisture also dislike being out of the ground for long as they have no outer tunic to protect them. This is the reason for me (usually) storing them in dry sand during summer.

I had failures with these as well, with expensive (overpriced in my opinion) bulbs bought in Sweden, but ironically when I got some cheap bulbs directly from the Netherlands I had perfect results. I was then able to plant them already in September and I think this was very beneficial.

One can grow these in very large pots as well or they can be placed under a roof overhang or planted under a large deciduous tree as its root system will (usually) keep the soil more well drained. A raised bed will really help as well. They are extremely attractive to the slugs as well, so needs some watching and control, really they are for slugs what tulips are for deer so they will travel long distances to get to the plants

I just mention all this, in case you ever decide to give these a go again. Bulb planting is an addiction after all

William, I'm so glad to read your experiences with Frillilaria! Several years ago I tried some and they were beautiful that first spring, but that was it. One of the 3 bulbs produced some leaves the 2nd year and then it also disappeared. Now that I know digging and storing increase chances of saving them I will try them again

I have planted multiple thousands (my guess is well over 10,000) of Spring bulbs over the years. You name it, I have planted it. Except Fritillaria. I always thought they were beautiful, but something said Nope. Guess I have made wise choices. Now ....

William said: Bulb planting is an addiction after all

Yeppers. After spreading 18 bags of leaves I got from a neighbor yesterday (I still need another 10 or so), I realized I desperately needed more straw for my roses. Went to my friendly Ace hardware and bought 2 bales of brome hay (after placing a bit, I think it will work much better than straw. In New England I used to use salt marsh hay which is the best.) While thinking about placing the hay, I realized I had a few square feet left in my garden that could really benefit with some Spring bulbs.

So back to the bulb area. Yep - still only 75 % off, but what the heck. So here is yesterday's haul:

40 Crocus yellow mammoth
50 Muscari armeniacum
3 Allium purple sensation
15 Daffofil california (do they even grow there?)
20 Tulips mystic van eijk

Another 128 to add to the 305 I already planted. Soooooo 433 total for a guy who was gonna pass this year.

Yep - it is an addiction.

(Now I did have my eyes set on some at Lowes - if only they would move off that 50 % nonsense.)

Well I gotta admit it's rather relaxing reading about all these purchases you folks are doing and all those bulbs being planted, just sitting on my hands, thinking I'm done . Ahhhh...

BUT, as we are confessing our addictions today, I'll be truthful and say that I spent much of the past weekend outside in the snowfall doing last minute preparation in the greenhouse, cleaning and stuffing in all the pots with spring bulbs into it. Then bringing in loads of compost, one bucket at a time, to fill between the pots as insulation. This was in addition to harvesting carrots, digging dahlias and so on. We almost got 8 inches of wet snow followed by night temperatures of -8ºC/17.6ºF so this was just a bit of a panic as the weather forecast changed with short notice. However now everything should be thawing again, so perhaps I could have waited another week or two .