A measly 600? Yowza.

I was surprised the place that always had spring bulbs for sale this time of year didn't. I noted last year or year before that it's getting harder and harder to find bulbs locally, but this is one place I didn't expect to not sell them anymore. It's sad. I wonder if bulbs are still a part of gardening and sales have just moved primarily on-line, or whether the tradition of fall bulb planting is going (has gone) the way of the dodo and it's only we "old timers" still planting tulips, daffs, crocs, and the like.

I ordered my 400 tulips, 25 hyacinths and 50 anemones months ago. I received them about two weeks ago and already have some tulips chilling in the refrigerator.

Yay, Social Gal. 600 (or 400) sounds a lot but at least half of the tulips are going in pots and many of the others are tiny and can be planted with an auger. I do know what you are saying mxk...the online bulb merchants are still doing as much business as ever but at this time, supermarkets and homeware stores always have prepacks but apart from a few small bulbs, hardly anything. I wouldn't say it was a dying tradition but it doesn't seem to have the same seasonal inevitability that older gardeners expect.

What tulips, Socialgal.Garden hybrids or species, early or late? I recall pics of your many different garden bulbs. I definitely think bulbs are the gardeners friend.

The tulips I purchased are hybrids. Half for home, half for a city park where I volunteer, some early, some late. Mixed colors for home. Half pastel and half red for the park. The red are the ones already in the fridge, hoping for valentine’s day bloom. I’ll plant them in three groups, a week apart, so I usually get the timing right on at least one group.

I have plenty of species tulips at home that return every year so don’t need to buy more of those. In fact, I give a lot of T saxatilis away when they’re dormant. I also have T clusiana, T creticus and T sylvestris.

My soil is so nice in the area where I put the tulips at home, after many years of mulching, that I can plant 200 in less than an hour. At the park I will have the help of two or three other people.

I did not order any spring bulbs, just bought a few daffodils and crocus bulbs. I admire people who planted hundreds or even thousands of bulb! But I do plan to order some rainy lily bulbs next spring

Nothing ordered yet. Not sure I'll bother with tulips or crocus since the squirrels eat them. Probably just the usual February Gold for pots and window boxes. But I've done my indoor hyacinths.

"But I've done my indoor hyacinths."

Hyacinth is my favorite spring scent. I usually buy myself some potted hyacinths for the house when they start showing up in the market. Just love them.

This might be the first year 'ever' where I am not planting any bulbs. I think I am now going through bulb withdrawal ;).

Just in the last 2 days I got my 150 or so tulips in and 50 crocus and 8 fritillaria imperialis. That's all for this year since it's hard to get bulbs shipped up here and I missed the limited local offerings. Back in the day I'd do over 1,000 - my tulips don't survive our wet summers so it's a labor of love and I'm slowing down.

Just as well, I planted through frosty soil and the low this morning was 17F so I'm done, by definition!

Happy planting everybody!

rouge I'm not doing any bulbs this year either. I just do not have the time this year. Last year I planted some crocuses, daffs, and tulips (tulips are always in pots now, as annuals) for the first time in two years, mostly at my daughter's house (and new-ish garden). I HATE planting bulbs lol so between that and budget and time constraints, I didn't do any for a couple of years. Last year I did, and I was happy this spring that I did! I know I will be kicking myself next spring, especially on the tulips (the daffs and crocus will come back) but I just can't this year.

Perhaps if I see a sale in November and I'm almost done with the yard, I may relent and impulsively get a handful of tulips to throw in a pot, but no plans for bulb planting this fall!

I will live vicariously through all of you when you post your fabulous photos next spring!

:)

Dee

I was prompted into action and just ordered 100 February Gold and 50 Jeanne d'Arc for containers. No tulips. If the squirrels don't get them they blow to pieces in a couple of days in our wet and windy weather. Just not worth the annual disappointment.

Everyone was so ambitious (or realistic) a month back, and now fast forward to the end of November and I'm just now facing reality :)

The snow plow is up and down our street, my tulips and daffodils are still unplanted, and maybe over the Thanksgiving holiday I'll bundle up, face the cold and get something planted. On the plus side planting and decisions go much faster when your fingertips and toes are numb from the cold!

In my defense though, it was so dry up until yesterday that a pickaxe would have been required to chip out a few planting spots so I'm sticking with that excuse for my 'situation' (although in all honesty 4 out of 5 years this is how I roll)

^^ LOL! Yea, I hear ya...

I ended up buying one package of daffs when I was at a nursery looking for something else, I think there's 8 or 10 bulbs. They're still sitting in the garage waiting to be planted. I'm going to try to get it done today, it snowed but nothing stuck, and with the rain we've gotten lately it should go very fast. The problem is the area I'm going to plant them has been invaded by grass and weeds, so while planting a hole and sticking 10 bulbs in it will take all of 10 minutes, the weeding will take a while. I was glad to see the nursery had a rack of bulbs -- not a large selection, but at least there was something.

kato I've been out in January planting daffs. I was a bit mortified, as I was planting around the mailbox, for the whole neighborhood to see me, and I was thinking how I was adding to their perception of me as a kooky lady. Bad enough they see me raking leaves OUT of the woods to shred in spring if I run out of mulch. Now they were seeing me digging holes and planting in January!

I still haven't ruled out an impulse buy. Still getting some "final final sales" emails from bulb companies. Wondering if there will be some "final final FINAL sales" coming in the next week lol.

:)

Dee

Dee that's funny, I was in a store with bulbs for sale (a box store, nothing special) and was disgusted that the bulbs were still full price! Not that I was looking at them and thinking maybe, but I think I'm good this year with the buying... just not the planting! The only maybe would be if they were tiny weird bulbs I haven't tried yet or huge cheap alliums which are rarely on the shelf anyway, so I'm probably safe on that one too.

Kooky lady? My poor kids, I'm apparently the kooky dad who hauls leaves out of the woods from where the other neighbors dump them, and then dumps them all over my front yard. For the sake of my children I do try to keep the really weird stuff in the backyard and out of sight, like when I'm running the mower in January to mulch up the trimmed hellebore foliage, but sometimes the only time you have left to plant daffs is during a snow squall on the day after Christmas, and that's that!

Mx- since I've already embarrassed myself I might as well admit that during bub planting I can barely be bothered with weeding. Maybe they will die during the digging or winter or at least I can fool myself with that thought, and from a distance all you will see in April will be the flowers?

I'm the neighborhood kooky lady. I spend so much time puttering around outside that when our cat died and was buried by DH during a snowy January the neighbors thought we were gardening and remarked on it.

"Honestly sometimes I think I do more WALAT than actual gardening."

I am glad to know I am not alone in that LOL!

"I'm apparently the kooky dad who hauls leaves out of the woods from where the other neighbors dump them, and then dumps them all over my front yard."

See, none of the stuff others think is kooky is kooky to we gardeners, is it. I mean, you all understand why I take multiple trips with the pickup into the chi-chi neighborhood and load it full of bagged shredded leaves, don't you? The non-gardeners see waste, we all see FREE MULCH that enriches our soil for all the beautiful plants we tend.

"...I might as well admit that during bub planting I can barely be bothered with weeding. Maybe they will die during the digging or winter or at least I can fool myself with that thought, and from a distance all you will see in April will be the flowers?"

Sounds like a time- and labor-saving strategy to me! I did have to weed, though, because these are first-year fruit trees that are still establishing, and it's better to keep the quackgrass at bay, at least for now. At least with the recent rains we've had it pulled up pretty easily and I got the bulbs planted.

Gee, I thought I might be the anomaly this year - but it looks like I’m not the only one who opted not to add bulbs this year. I think this season I decided I just wasn’t into bulbs, especially tulip bulbs, for all the effort and inconsistent rebloom. Since I never usually lift what I have, I thought I’d rather just let what I have fade out over the next few years, instead of continually supplementing. The one exception to the bulb rule is fritillaria, which I think I got a few (3!) on sale somewhere and figured why not? But otherwise, looks like I’m taking a break from the bulb business.

"...but it looks like I’m not the only one who opted not to add bulbs this year. I think this season I decided I just wasn’t into bulbs, especially tulip bulbs, for all the effort and inconsistent rebloom."

Nice to see you on the board again LaLennoxa :0)

I don't do a lot of bulbs. I struggle with placement of bulbs, mainly because of the foliage and actually being able to see the bulbs. The foliage just isn't attractive as its dying back, and depending what it is it may not die back until mid to late May -- which is the beginning of high season here, I don't want the view mussed up with floppy yellowing dying foliage while other things are coming into full blooming glory. So I've focused on buying early-blooming cultivars and few tulips since those are just expensive deer food and re-bloom is inconsistent, as you mentioned. Except for the species tulips - those bloom consistently, if the deer don't get to them. Last year I planted some species in the middle of the bed next to the house, the deer don't go up that close to the house (yet...), so I did enjoy those out the window. Early bloomers, though, so the foliage didn't bug me.

I've took to planting crocus in the lawn last year -- I saw some random ones pop up (squirrel-planted or seed-germinated, IDK) and I thought it looked charming. I didn't get much bloom in the spring, though. We'll see this coming spring. Crocus are relatively inexpensive, so no big deal if the critters got them.

On a mad whim, I have just bought all the remaining species tulips from a local bulb merchant...so a mix of very expensive bulbs (such as the amazing new clusiana 'Sylvia' and albo-caerulea oculta, some aucherianas which are new to me ('Mara' and 'Jara') and some cheapos (turkmenistan, tarda and bakeri). Awaiting delivery of 600 or so for the princely sum of just over £100.

I have planted tulips at christmas, many times. I wouldn't hold out much hope for narcissus but the little species tulips will not mind the late planting in the least...and I have an entirely new bed, to be filled with mountain beauties such as lewisias, penstemons and eriogonums (have only recently discovered the buckwheats), plus a lot of seedlings I started during the summer (sandworts, iberis, prickly poppy, antennarias).

Arriving this week, I am ignoring the Xmas shopping madness and spending my time (shivering) at the allotment.

Houzz is being completely hopeless - has locked me out of all my accounts(007, campanula, rosaprimula et al) so I have had to dig out the ancient chromebook, just to post on here.

How have you managed to 'like' this within about 30 seconds of posting, Rouge.? Are you permanently connected and ever-ready?

So 007 is now Suzy Jackson? How Bond-ish LOL! Does your bikini still fit?

Ha, looks like you are adding to your identities too, Porks, (mxk3). I have worn a bikini exactly once (peer pressure)...and when the bottom half fell off during an enthusiastic dive, I never attempted one again.

Are you permanently connected and ever-ready?

@suzy jackson I was at the grocery store in the dairy aisle picking up a container of kefir (good for the tummy ;)) and since I had made a post in this thread I get an alert (to my phone) whenever anyone adds to it. (And with the cool name of Suzy" I clicked on Like regardless of the quality of the post ;)).

"...and when the bottom half fell off during an enthusiastic dive, I never attempted one again."

LMAO!!

Reminds me of the time by then-boyfriend's shorts fell down while we were water-skiing (with my sister and her best friend along for the ride, no less...poor guy {blush})

Thanks for making me laugh tonight!

Oh and many tulips still unplanted but that didn't stop me from ordering some 50% off clearance bulbs after Thanksgiving. Just a couple hundred english bluebells (hopefully), snowdrops, and more tulips! Tulip clusiania, a mix of several hybrids and I'm excited to see what I get. They've been here for a few years planted in the lawn but I think it's become too shady for them so the new ones will be nice.

On the downside our ground is frozen ; but trust me I have a plan!

"... On the downside our ground is frozen ; but trust me I have a plan!..."

Hmm, very intriguing.....

;)

Dee

Yesterday I went to Homedepot and they have already spring bulbs in stock. I am really happy to get the Rain Lily

And Dahlia tubers

I am waiting for more later to come in Costco