You can plant crocus and daffs without prechilling. Tulips I am not sure of though they are pretty much annuals here. There are some wonderful species tulips you can plant that will be perennial. I ordered a bunch this fall. Muscari also does well without any work and oxalis and windflower are also perennial. There are also some very "southern" bulbs like crinum, amaryllis and calla lilies and of course lycoris and rain lilies that will bloom in the summer without too much trouble. I've been planting with spring and fall in mind lately. Those being the most long, lovely and inhabitable times of the year here. Adele

I plant Dutch Iris, daffodils and Spanish bluebells in late October. They come back year after year. No pre-chilling. I did tulips once...I have deer, therefore, no tulips.

Olivia- i love your handle! My daughter's real name is Livian, aka Livi or Liv. But she gets 'Olivia' a lot! :)

I've found i adore the species tulips and they multiply really well. They tend to look more crocus ike in form than regular tulips, but they make up for it in their enthusiasm. greggiis look pretty normal and have gorgeous foliage to boot. My fave are the tulipa chrysanthas, though. Sooo pretty- yellow with a red stripe outside, they are tall & elegant. Occasionally darwin tulips will give you a second or 3rd show, but most of the other 'showies' are annuals. I did get a repeat on queen of the night, too (deep purple). Since the showies are kind of a waste of money, i buy whatever's left on sale and plant those. People like to underplant their pansie with them so they make a stellar spring show.

There are so many lovely 'minor', lesser known bulbs that do great in this area. Chiondoxia, squill, snowdrops, grape hyacinth and some of the other species hyacinth, species crocus as well as regular crocs, fritillarias (they're pickier), brodiea, ornithogalums, alliums, cyclamen, and anemones are just a few i've had good luck with. Don't be afraid to try the little stuff- they provide lots of pop in the winter when it's barer. I love the mini daffs, too- same reason.

The only reason i prechill is if i buy early for selection and don't want to take time or the ground's to warm to plant. I tend to plant bulbs around or after thanksgiving. I have often not bothered and stuff was fine without it, even sitting around at room temp. If you do prechill make sure you don't have fruit in the fridge or the ethylene gas it gives off will destroy the flower bud inside the bulb.

Thanks everyone for your wonderful advice. I'm trying several bulbs this year and we'll see how they do. Tamelask -- Livian is a great name. Back in my younger years it was just me and Olivia Newton John, but now I'm constantly turning my head at the grocery store when people call to their little Livs.

I have a good friend with a 2 year-old daughter named Olivia. Her mom calls her every variation imaginable. One is "Liver Lips", and my daughter just got a birthday card signed, "Lips". I thought it was cute, but my husband and parents were horrified . . . I stick by the thinking that it's just cute.

As for tulips, we have quite a lot of them in our garden. They were planted by a previous homeowner, so I can't say for sure what they are, but they just look like your ordinary tulips. I never do anything to them and they come back every year. Also, we have tons of deer, because I live in a heavily wooded, 3 acre lot, but they don't touch 'em. They must be eating the one million azaleas over at my neighbor's house.

We in the Triangle area will have an opportunity to learn more about growing bulbs on October 20 at 7 pm at the Wake Co. Public Library West Branch (Just off Hwy 55 in western Cary). The talk is entitled "Beautiful Bulbs" and the speaker will be Mark Weathington, Asst Director at the J C Raulston Arboretum. I have attended several of Mark's Plantsman's Tours recently and can highly recommend you go hear him any time he is scheduled to speak. (He is also doing an upcoming program at the arboretum where he will discuss his recent plant-finding trip to China.) The program at the library is free, but they request that people contact them to register. I will start a new thread with a link to the library's web site asap. This should provide directions and information on registering for the program.

Aww- i think it's cute, too Deirdre (and i love your name, too, btw). It's so funny how nicknames evolve. We called DD Livvie Lou when she was little even though her middle name is Joelle. That turned into Lewsey Lou, which in turn became Little Lou. Funny 'cause when my Mom remarried she married a Lou (though we don't call her livvie lou much anymore- she's grown out of that). Then a client of mine called her 'L Jo' like J Lo. I thought that was pretty funny & clever. Olivia certainly is lots more popular now, along with lots of old fashioned names like madeline & isabel.

Funny thing is, my real name is Tamela, like Pamela with a 't', which i grew up saying. Mom always said she couldn't imagine an old woman named Tammy, but a baby named Tamela sounded weird. I still go by Tammy, but like Tamela more and more and may some day switch, but growing up i hated my name, and explaining it. And then here i go, naming my daughter Livian like Vivian with an 'L'. First time i said that i smacked my forehead and went "d'oh!" My reason was i liked both Lillian and Vivian, but wanted to combine them. Plus the original plan was for her nickname to be 'Ivy'- i wanted a name that meant 'green' , but it never happened. Anyhow, now i've bored you to tears. Sorry I got so far off topic!

I have three totally different areas in my yard where one red tulip comes up every year.

What I have found with tulips and the other bulbs is that the earlier they are touted to flower, the better. I planted some of my (past) favorite tulips when I first moved here, and found that they are late-flowering - because it can get SO hot so fast, some years the blooms last only a few days. I now, if I plant more tulips and HOPE to have them in future years, plant those advertised to flower early or mid-season. That way, if it gets unseasonably hot early on, the blooms last for a week or two, at the least. My tulips usually come back, but I don't count on them, and am pleased when I see them.

The species tulips, as said above, are pretty reliable.

I have a VERY early daffodil, that I dug up and moved from the edge of a field - the old fashioned greeny-yellow double - that can begin to flower in Jan.-Feb., and I have a few later, modern ones, that flower into April. Even there, I try to stay away from the late-flowering ones, since when it gets hot, the blooms are gone in a few days. If you live near the coast, you can even grow the various narcissus - that the rest of us force inside - as an outside bulb.

I have had trouble getting snow drops to settle in and grow at all, and lily of the valley is hopeless in the one spot I tried, but the other small bulbs are wonderful. Hyacinths frequently come back, and the grape hyacinths always do. Crocus are always a joy. I found, last spring, that I need to replenish some of my crocus patches, but am not sure why - maybe just too much, too heavy clay, since many of the bulbs like a fairly dry summer....

The deeper you can plant tulips (up to 5-6") the less likely they will split, and need to regrow to blooming size (or rot in my clay soil!) - this also helps in their return.

It helps if you scatter a bulb fertilizer around when you plant the bulbs, for new ones, and when you first see leaves for the older ones, and then again just before they bloom - this gives the bulbs a boost for the next season's flowering.

I love tulips, they are my favorite flower.

I planted them the first time last year in a new house, and they did great.

For a prominent spot I ordered some really beautiful ones from www.colorblends.com and they were amazing, I have never seen such large bulbs! Also, they have a service where they can prechill them for you, and I had that done to the bulbs I ordered from them.

I also bought more bulbs here and there, because I couldn't resist, and almost all of them came up fine without prechilling, though my store-bought bulbs produced much smaller flowers.

It is my understanding that only tulips need to be pre-chilled for this area, so if you're worried about it, order your bulbs from a site that will take care of that for you.

Oh, and I dug my bulbs from last year, the ones from colorblends anyway, and I plan on planting the year old ones in another location. I'll leave the new ones in this year and see if they come up again.

The one thing I recommend is that you don't put the bulbs in plain clay soil. You might want to make beds, and dig out the clay and replace it with topsoil, bulbs can rot in clay.

Good luck!
Larisa

A lesson I learned when someone gave me one of those mega bags of bulbs one winter. A gift that I was thrilled to receieve except that I was afraid of having to dig a million holes to get them all planted... You don't have to plant most of the spring blooming bulbs, they will plant themselves!! This really holds true with daffodils. Most bulbs have special roots that can actually pull the bulb to the proper planting depth as the plant grows (doesn't happen while they are dormant in the winter). Amazing since they don't have muscles nor brains to figure this out.

If you take the area where you want the spring bulb display and rough up the soil with a rake or hoe and then lay down as much good soil as you can (potting soil is far richer than they would need but it is so convenient in large bags). Then sprinkle the bulbs in random patterns on the top of the soil and bury the whole mess under a deep layer of mulch or fallen leaves. The bulbs will emerge in the spring just as if they had been buried deep in the soil, and in the summer after the blooming season is done you can dig down in the composting mulch and you will see that the bulbs have buried themselves in the soil. They planted themselves.

The mulch layer needs to be pretty deep because it will settle and break down to a thin layer by the next summer.

Bulbs and clay don't mix so you would want to mound many inches of top soil or bagged soil mix on top of the clay and then toss on the bulbs. This is far easier than digging out the clay. If you have nothing but clay the easiest way to garden is to build up mounds of good soil on top of the clay.

You also don't have to worry about whether the bulbs are right side up or upside down - they will grow up no matter which way you plant them. No need to make this harder than it already is, just toss them out in a random pattern and bury them in mulch.

Another trick is to simply place a bulb in a plastic flower pot that is 3/4 full of soil and cover with mulch. After it blooms and the leaves die back you can dig it out and you will most often find it on the bottom of the pot.

John, once again, great info!! I love the gardening tips you always seem to have hanging around!! Question for you, is there any bulbs that you particularly would not want to plant in this manner? I purchased quite a few this year and would love to use this method of planting in my sandy loam soil. Also is there any wildlife drawback with this? I've got tons of woodland critters around here, deer, rabbit, field mice, wild boar, you name it. My guess is they would dig up if planted just as they would with this method but got to ask. Thanks!!

Most critters won't mess with daffies, alliums and some of the other bulbs that are poisonous &/or odorous, but tulips are great edibles and so i'd be leery about doing it with them. I doubt it'd be hard at all to plant them with your sand though, nanner. Get a dibble and after the soil's moist pop them in. John have you ever tried that method with tulips, and if so, how'd they fare?

Wow John. That's a tip worth it's weight in gold. Thank you! That will save me a tremendous amount of time this fall. How deep of a layer of mulch are we talking about?

I have noticed in the past when a squirrel or some other critter dug up my bulb bed that some of the tulips went ahead and grew up through the mulch and bloomed - but it is a famous way of planting a ton of daffodils and no one seems to recommend it for other bulbs. I imagine it would work with just about anything, the key factor being the kind of mulch you cover them with. If it were me doing the grunt work I would just rough up the ground and toss out whatever bulbs I had and cover with Pine Bark Fines or pine bark Soil Conditioner which has a fine texture that would act just like potting soil.

Though many bulbs are poisonous and a lot of people mention daffodils as deer proof - a young deer will sample everything to determine what is edible and what is not. So deer will sometimes eat daff's (they can't read, so they never see those lists).

Squirrels are the worst!! they sense where I've planted bulbs and they go out and dig a few up every day. They dig them all up regardless of whether they eat them or not. (one of the other forums had a fool proof squirrel trap, not that attractive but easy to construct out of common household items - but it drowns the squirrels so I am not going to talk about it further. I get enough hate mail as it is.)