My problem is no matter how many daffs I plant, come Spring I always wish I had planted more. I want to look out over the front acre and see a sea of yellow blooms gently waving in the breeze. Interspersed in that yellow sea I want large patches of blue grape hyacinths. All this should be followed closely by the startling red of Indian paintbrush in large expanses throughout the yard. When the Indian paintbrush blooms around April first that's when I start to look for the hummingbirds. The hummers sweep in on the first really warm breeze of summer and I find them on the paintbrushes before they ever hit the feeders. Oh yeah, I need more daffodils too. Cheryl

There's much more a variety of daffodils in stores now than there used to be. Usually it was a big bag of 40-60 yellow daffodils sometime 100, maybe some white Mount Hoods. Now there are all these beautiful shades of pink and doubles and bi-colors to choose from. The problem is the prettiest ones don't always multiply or if they do it's very slowly over many years.

I put two bulbs in a hole most times, that means a bag of 30 doesn't go very far when you are trying to naturalize. And then you have the grass that grows in between clumps, sometimes in such a way that you really can't mow the grass without mowing the foliage of the daffodils, which you don't want to do too early.

Yesterday I planted:
"Rosy Cloud" (8)
Mixed Color Asst.Narcissus (30)
"Fortune" yellow with orange cup (30)
"Split Corona Mix" (12)
"Lemon Beauty" (12)

If you keep planning and planting,Cheryl, you'll have that "yellow sea" some day. Just gotta keep thinking ahead to what will be. I learned long time ago that no one was going to help me, if I wanted it I had to do it.

Do you guys use a bulb drill attachment? Im kinda considering this. I just did 100 tulips and i have alot more to go, but i had to quit because of the huge blisters on my hands!
I bought 2 bags of darwin hybrid pastel tulips, and 2 bags of ice follies daffodils, some scilla, some muscari, paperwhites and some hyaciths. Im really excited to see them next spring! Even tho i bought alot im sure i could use 20 or 30 more bags!

I also would love to see a sea of color in the spring, i wish rabbits didnt like crocus so much because id love to fill my lawn with them! daffs would be great too but i dont think i could let the foliage go that long before having to cut the grass.

I just use a shovel when I plant to naturalize. Step on the shovel, bend back the sod, slip a bulb (or two)in, take shovel out and step on the sod to firm it over the bulbs. Works for me, sometimes it's 6" down sometimes 4", but the bulbs bloom anyway.

If I plant bulbs in a flower bed, I use a trowel or I shovel out an a patch of dirt and lay the bulbs down, then shovel the soil back ontop. 100 tulips - that's alot to plant with a trowel! I assume that's what gave you the blisters? Hopefully the soil was already tilled and soft.

Update on planting the bulbs in the window box: Just got back from the nursery where I loaded two bags of potting mix into the trunk of my car. After I looked around a bit at the shrubs/trees on sale, I was paying for the potting soil when the owner, who was eating lunch nearby behind the counter, heard the clerk and I discussing the planting of bulbs in the window box.

He asked me what kind? He said, "You can't do that. The bulbs will freeze". Because of the lack of insulation in the window box he says, in the ground they freeze but not all the way because they are surrounded by soil. Also mentioned that I could plant the bulbs in indiv. flower pots, place the pots in the ground, then in Spring place the pots in the window box. Not the effect I was after.

So, the clerk gave me my money back and we unloaded the bags from my trunk. I'm disappointed, but also glad that the owner was honest and advised me it wouldn't be a good idea.

schoolhouse, i wanted to plant bulbs in my urns, so im glad you mentioned this!! I dont know if i also want to plant them seperatly, but i might, and then transfer them before they bloom.
I was usning a bulb planter, its a round metal thing with a handle . If i could find my trowel ( i lose tools all summer long) i might try that.
its alot of work though!

I used to use the "round metal thing with a handle", but when the soil is dry it just doesn't work. As soon as I would pull the tool up out of the ground, the soil it picked up would fall right back down and cover the hole again. But it really works in nice garden soil when planting one bulb at a time. It will tire you out quickly though, esp. when trying to make a 6" hole. You have to push it down, then wriggle all around to capture soil, then lift before the dirt falls out. After about 20 times, you're pooped! ha.

I just thought, they make those metal ring planters with a long handle, and you step on it like a shovel. Is that the kind you have? I just assumed it was the hand held type.

I use that "Bulb Bopper" from Gardener's Supply. I can plant a hundred in an hour if the soil isn't awful. And the drill supplies the muscle.
kay

No i have the short one! It works for me since im sitting on the ground already and i do plant one at a time. The area i started with(walkway garden) i can reach from where im sitting and plant between my perennials. Now the beds (which i havent started) will be harder i guess getting in the back. I saw the one that you step on and i may have to grab one of those too. truthfully im worn out already and am considering skipping the daffodils and being happy with what i did! lol

I wonder tho, you know how some tulips return and some dont? What do you do? I was thinking id hate to think they were returning and not plant next fall, and then not have them the following spring. Any idea?
One year i planted a nice mix of tulips and the only thing that returned was apricot beauty tulips.

Does anyone have trouble mixing daffodils in with the other bulbs? I planted tulips, hyacinth and dutch iris this year, but I don't know if I should put the daffodils in the same bed. I got some cream colored ones and they're so pretty, but I've read that daffodils don't like a lot of water. Since all my beds have at least a few roses, I water a lot and I don't know if that will hurt the daffodils.

The yellow daffodils (which I love) are everywhere and grow anywhere we don't mow. My husband's grandmother planted them decades ago and there's big clumps of them, all around the old house and on the other side of the driveway. There's even a few that come up along the edge of the horse pasture :)

I keep forgetting that I have two bags of daffodils to plant.
Thanks for the reminder.