Kilobulb Planters 2013

Some views out front.

Firespray tulips

The backyard daylily bed.

Stunning (again), Rita! Is there a golden type mixed with the 'Firespray', or do they change color as the blossoms mature?

Well as I understand it Firespray tulips used to only come in the red color. But now Brecks has them in mixed Firespray and that is what I bought. So some are red, some orange and some yellow-orange. I really like these. And last year saw that the only place to get Firespray was at Brecks. No one else sold them. That is because Brecks coined the name Firespray.

So you can get the orange Firespay otherwise called praestans 'Shogun' at Brent & Beckies-
https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/productview/?sku=02-1454

They carry a red Firespray too, praestans 'Unicum'
https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/spring/productview/?sku=02-1431

Thanks! I planted lots of 'Unicum' 2 years ago, thinking they'd make a great display with some bicolor muscari. Somebody ate them, nearly all of them, but the one that bloomed did look pretty in its sea of pale and darker blues!

Rita, your flower display is fantastic.

Bbrookrd, I have wanted to visit the Netherlands in spring for over 30 years, but so far, I've never made it. I've been to Amsterdam in July a couple of times, but never in April - I hear Floriad (every 10 years) is breathtaking. Five years ago we were in Paris in late March and it was about two weeks ahead of our spring, so we got a 'preview' of spring - 'tete'a'tete' narcissus were everywhere.

Gudoshnik tulips starting to bloom. I am really pleased with these. This is their third spring in ground. I never dig up and replant my tulips.

darwins row in the backyard also starting to bloom. Another batch of tulips that are on their third spring in ground. These were bought as just a mix.

Gudoshnik today, its cloudy so they are all closed up!

daffs blooming

Out front today on a cloudy dreary day means the tulips are all closed up.

Like your mix with the tad bit of purple. Pouring rain today so nothing is out especially me. patti

The bed of 'Red Passion' tulips I planted are timed to give a bed of blooms over several weeks (they advertise 45 days, but I have my doubts). The first wave was white (!), then solid red tulips bloomed, then red, edged in white. They are about done now, and a white bloom splashed with red ('Carnival in Nice'?) is opening. It also looks like smaller, very pointed red flowers will bloom soon.

Love red and purple and orange together. Also orange and blue but that's not tulips.

I've accidentally planted orange 'Little Princess' species tulips together with blue woodland phlox, and that was really nice.

I am far behind. I have so many pictures need to go on this thread but never enough time!

Jill, I love it.

The party's over, and now we kilobulb planters must deal with the leftovers. Donna Mack very astutely talked me into saving my bulbs each year, so now I leave the beds intact until the spent tulip plants have withered and nourished the bulbs. These three beds will look ragged until mid-June, when I'll dig and store the bulbs and plant annuals.

No one has been on this thread for a long time. I ended up ordering over 10,000 bulbs and am currently planting.

Rita, the mind boggles. I want to camp out in your yard this spring!

I'm planting "only" 1 kilobulb here, but most are bigger daffs & a few tulips, unlike previous years when the "little bulbs" outnumbered the bigger ones by 3 to 1. I've got about 400 to put in at my in-laws when we go down at Thanksgiving, also, so I'm sure hoping for cooperative weather then, not that I haven't planted their yard in the rain before LOL.

Today I dug up a thuggish strip of garlic chives next to the front walk. Joyanna helped me rescue grape hyacinth bulbs, iris tubers, et al. from the matted tangle of roots. In their place, we put 50 'Gudoshnik' darwin tulips and 50 'Jetfire' daffs, plus replanting divided irises & muscari. It wasn't that big an area, maybe 10 feet long and 2-3 feet wide, but it took all afternoon!

Dug up a bunch of what I think may be species tulips that hadn't bloomed in a long while, and no wonder -- the clumps of bulbs were softball size or larger, 20-30 bulbs where I'd probably started with 3 at the most. I'm thinking of replanting those right up against the walkway but am going to sleep on that idea -- might just put saffron crocus there next fall instead.

So I think that's about 300 bulbs in the ground so far for me... I'd better pick up the pace, LOL.

1,000 seems like such a large number, but some of the smaller bulbs come in packages of 100, so it's easy to see how that happens.

Expecting rain last week, I put in some huge alliums with a few smaller ones and a whole bag of dwarf irises. Pretty much trench method. There is still so much cleaning before we can dig, dig, dig. Definitely worth the payoff.

We got our first frost last night, and for us it is late.

Thanks for bumping this thread Rita.

I have 1360 bulbs to plant so far this year. My Colorblends order arrived several weeks ago, and my Netherlands Bulb Co. Bulbs arrived yesterday. I'm still waiting on my Van Engelen order to arrive. I have not begun planting anything yet. It had been too warm until this week when we got frost, and below freezing temps for several nights. I can now start planting, since the soil is starting to cool down.

I've got 500 tulips, 200 daffodils, 300 crocus, 300 muscari, 50 Hyacinths, 9 Allium Globemaster, and 14 peony tubers to plant. I have also got 10 peony plants in pots that need to be transplanted.

I agree with Crit, the thought of having to plant 10,000 bulbs is mind boggling. Rita, you're going to have an amazing, car stopping garden next spring.

Annette

Jill, I want to hear about those Gudoshik (?) tulips. I've been eying them for years.

Gudoshnik tulips are lovely. They're very colorful, and are a wonderful accent in the garden!

http://www.colorblends.com/Tulip/Gudoshnik/

They look absolutely gorgeous in the catalog--I'd like to hear from someone who's had them be gorgeous in the garden.

This IS my second year growing Gudoshnik in MY garden! It is a lovely tulip, and I liked it so much, I ordered 100 more to plant this fall from Colorblends. as well as it's double Moris Gudanov..

I would not have commented on your question if I had not grown this tulip personally.

Annette

Carrie, I will post shots of it when I get back to Nantucket tomorrow. It is a lovely ethereal beauty which goes through many color changes which is way cool. How is Texas for growing tulips? Patti

Patti & Cem, I think both of you commented on Gudoshnik previously, making me determined to add it to this year's group bulb buy. I'm really looking forward to it! It's fun to have something so unique along the front walk where everybody can enjoy watching it shift colors... Thanks!

We can't plant anything ourselves. I think you have to plant chilled bulbs. But people do (crazy).

Happy Thanksgiving and Bulb Sale Time. I sent in an order last night after finishing up with the feast. They have a nice selection left. Patti


"50% Off Remaining Bulbs!
https://store.brentandbeckysbulbs.com/

This message was edited Nov 29, 2013 10:15 AM

Due to an early freeze and a bad bout of Shingles our bulbs got planted in fits and starts with the last burst being yesterday and today. I guess it is better late than never, so happily 3521 bulbs are now planted. I think the last 1000 will be a tad later in appearing, but think they will all be just fine. We got our usual Jan thaw for the last couple of days, but the weather is going back down to below freezing again tonight so I am glad we got them planted. Can't wait to see everyone's bulbzilla show in the spring, especially our Queen Rita's display. We have a few Galanthus (Snowdrops) up. Patti

Sorry to hear about the shingles, I hope you've fully recovered.

Congrats on getting the last of your bulbs planted. You must be so relieved. I planted my last 335 bulbs on January 5th. Without fail, every year I find myself still having bulbs to plant in January. I'm glad I got them done then, our ground froze soon after that.

Now, I'm looking forward to spring, and I can't wait to see all of the bulbs I planted bloom.

Thanks Cem9165, I am mostly all better, some lingering pain and redness, but minor so I have moved on, but it did cause a big problem of getting things planted and doing the fall clean up as I couldn't use my left arm and was bed ridden for almost a month. My DH did double duty as the sole gardener and my nurse. We had a perfect garden day yesterday in the 40's and sunny. We got started on the pruning and more raking so that almost all the beds are tidy and ready for the bulbs to do their stuff. Like you, "can't wait". May it be a beautiful Bulb-a-licious spring for you. Patti

Oh Patti, shingles is bad. There's a vaccine available now....apparently, you're more at risk if you've had it before. I got the vaccine this year. Once (10 or 20 years ago) was plenty for me. Good thing DH enjoys the bulb show (almost) as much as you do.

I had the shingles too before about 30 years ago, but nothing compared with this bout. Vaccine is said to be only partially effective, and my dermatologist said not to get one after my latest go round, but my other doctor said to get it. I have decided not to get one, as I have so many meds in my system that I am thinking that I will roll the dice on this one. I will most likely be dead in 30 years unless I am like my mom who will be 99 in March. She may fly to New York City for her 99th to celebrate at the new restaurant that our son has been hired to be help open about that time. He will be the Chef de Cuisine for it at this fine dinning Mediterranean place with a French Chef owner that is located on the upper west side near the Natural History Museum. My mom chastised me today for being so tardy with the bulb planting. Tough old bird. Glad I got them planted before this storm. Bet you aren't missing the snow too much. Patti

*ouch* & sympathy on the shingles. Glad you're pretty mjuch past them.

My neighbor kid is back! She came over for an hour just tbefore the snow & cold hit, and we put 200 daffs into trenches in the veggie garden -- my "emergency" method for getting them into the ground.

I got the front bed pretty well planted up this fall, despite the lymphedema flare causign swelling in my left arm... and then I tried to do too much (moving plants inside, getting things arranged & moved out of the way for tree work, then moving everything off the vinyl flooring so it could be scrubbed & sealed) and really messed up my right shoulder. I spent a very frustrating 6 couple of months being barely able to do anything with my hands even, but now both arms are improving. Anyway, that's why I'm looking at quick methods of getting the rest of the bulbs in.

I've got a bunch of little bulbs left, and I've got maybe a dozen daff bags and some hyacinths with 5 or 10 bulbs to pot up into containers and put out. I think that's do-able, and it sure looks like we've still got plenty of "cold" left this year! The bulbs have been out in the garage, probably 40-50 degrees, and they're holding really well there. :-)

Critterologist, Having lymphedema so scares me when I talk to women who have had it after they had breast cancer. I understand it is painful, debilitating and dangerous. Poor you. I have been very careful with my right arm and thus far I have not have any signs of it or pains or swelling. However, I did start having major esophageal problems when I was having radiation treatments which after several operations is much better, but unfortunately I still have serious on going issues that all kinds of medication and Botok treatments that I take for them have failed to fix my issues after 4 1/2 years. I was lucky to have the shingles on my left side.

I love your emergency planting plan for bulbs. I am going to remember that if I get caught again with too many not planted as we have a nice big veggie bed. We use an electric drill with an auger for all the larger bulbs and for little bulbs we use a dibble. He drills and I drop the bulbs in the holes, then we both fill and rake and then we do a little dance on top of them to pat them in firmly, kind of romantic. Patti

Patti, you're right to be watchful... like diabetes, lymphedema can be treated & controlled pretty readily, although the daily management gets old... but if it gets away on you, then you can get into real trouble. Sorry to hear of your ongoing issues; hope you'll continue to heal with time. I was just so angry about the lymphedema when it first popped up... all that I'd survived and now this? seriously?? You must feel the same way about your esophageal problems. We'll manage, sure, but we reserve the right to be really annoyed sometimes!

When I ordered all these bulbs, I'd been doing fine for some time, able to do quite a bit of digging etc without causing issues with the lymphedema... so it did really cheese me off when my arm poofed up right at fall planting time!

I really love your descriptions of the way you & DH team up in the garden! What a pair of sweeties!

Patti, my shingles experience was a loooooong time ago, and I was mostly interested in getting DH vaccinated. I was saying to his doctor, since I already had it, I'm safe, right? And he's the one who told me I have a higher chance of getting it than DH does. Where my immune system is royally screwed up, it's not too smart for me to hang around with sick people, even DH and shingles. So to please me, we both got immunized.

I hope both of you lovely ladies have improved and continuing good health. You're right, Jill, maintenance DOES get old pretty fast!