Hello all,

I'm a total newbie to bulb gardening and would like to start getting ready to plant an approximately 70-80 sq foot bed in my courtyard. I've had a blast reading up on the process over the last few weeks and have the feeling you've got a new bulb head on your hands, but I want to make sure I'm setting myself up for success as much as possible. As fun as it is to look through the catalogues and dream, I know there's planning and a lot of work involved in making that happen.

I'm tentatively looking at putting in some daffodils, tulips, alliums, bluebells (for some shadier spots), and maybe an early mix (crocus, etc). When possible I've picked out a mix of early, mid, and late bloomers.

I'm in region 7b, so I imagine I'll plant in late November or early December, which might mean some time in the fridge for at least some of the bulbs.

I'd like to try to plant so that the entire bed has growth throughout the season (as much as nature will allow), and I've read up on some general approaches to planting, but I was wondering what your approaches to laying out/spacing bulbs are? If I want to orchestrate "waves" of blooms during the season, is there a certain way I should place bulbs with different bloom times? Next to each other, on top of each other ("lasanga" method)...?

Also, I'm planning to test the ph of the soil there, and once I know what I'm dealing with, amend as needed. Any tips on that would be appreciated as well.

I have never been successful at that but please post a pic when yours start blooming.

jhs2327: Wow! Quite an expectation for "bulbs" to perform all season in zone 7a/b. To the best of my knowledge, all of the bulbs you have mentioned are Spring bulbs, either early/mid or late, but still Spring. Then you will have to think about another planting of something that will take you from late Spring to late Fall?? And you will have to bear in mind, that you can't cut the green off your bulbs after they have bloomed, because the greenery still left is what refuel the bulbs for the next year. While I "stagger" planting of a lot of plants so I have production as long as I am able, (Gladiolas and Dahalias good case in point) I have never heard of that being done with "Spring" bulbs, and I have hundreds of Daffodils, Tulips and everything in between. If you figure out a solution to year round Spring bulb blooming, let the Dutch know, and me too! Cheers! PS. You have to think of timing, and what you can plant in the same beds, or place in pots on top, to keep things blooming along the rest of the year. Lots of options, just have to think it through.

Daylilies aren't bulbs but they are great to incorporate in beds of spring bulbs. I was in your boat this/last year and once my bulbs played out, the daylilies picked up the torch and bloomed all summer. Now, we'll see how much the summer watering affected my spring bulbs (ie rotted) but I've accidentally dug up a lot of said bulbs lately and they look like they are all ready for another round.

Thanks! I'm going to give it a go this year with some daffodils, tulips, and muscari for mid-late spring and alliums for early summer. This year will just be a fun experiment.

Do you get enough winter for tulips to reliably return in 7b?