Philomena,
Most of spring planted bulbs bloomed for me nicely. Sometimes, blooming is delayed (because of the weather conditions probably). For example, I had a spring planted Asiatic Lily blooming in November. Lilies bought on late season sales and planted in June (or even July) usually bloom next year after planting.
Good luck with your Bulb Crate order. Black Beauty is widely available from different reputable sources, so do not be too frustrated if you will not get it from Alice.

Great ! thanks for the encouragement :-)

I'll probably order from the Lily Garden. I also saw the bulbs on the White Flower Farm website, but was very surprised to see they have had a rash of bad reviews on Watchdog - I've ordered from the before and while pricey, the plant materials were top notch - don't want to take chances again!

I ordered many Lilies last year from many online sources. The best quality/price ratio is Brent&Becky's and Hallson's. Also, Costco's Lilies were superb when they started to sell them in February/March. The price was unbeatable as well. The only drawback with Costco's bulbs: some of them are mislabeled.
Personally, I would order from the Lily Garden only their own hybrids. It is too expensive to buy common varieties from them, IMHO.

Lilies never really go dormant, so you can easily transplant either spring or fall (as long as they have a few weeks in the fall to settle in before it gets too cold) without interrupting their normal flowering cycle. I actually planted some 'Black Beauty' myself this past April when my favorite local garden center had some enormous bulbs for sale. They flowered right on schedule with the ones already established in the garden, as did the trumpet liles I planted at the same time and the Orienpet hybrids I planted the spring before.

You'll love 'Black Beauty.' I have it planted near the base of a white climbing rose that is trained on my fence; the 'Black Beauty' stems grow up into the rose plant - the rose supports the lily stems (you will need to stake as the top just gets so heavy with buds) and the lily flowers bloom among the roses.

- Steve

I have had great luck with lily bulbs purchased at White Flower Farm. The bulbs were nice and big. I planted in the late spring and still had blooms the first year. In contrast I didn't have much luck with some of the perrenials ordered. They were small and I lost about half over the winter.