spring bulbs

Hi I posted this question on ask a gardner, but I did not see any responses so I thought I would post here before these bulbs die :) I have a ton of double lillies and countless other perennial bulbs that went on clearance and my adorable friend bought them for me thinking I could plant them. Can I? I assume they were a dollar a bag marked down from $10 because they are useless. Does anyone know? I am zone 5b

It would have been more helpful to give you a clearer answer to your question IF you were able to give more info re these bulbs. You have a very lovely friend to think about you and buy the bulbs so lets hope you can save them.

Depending on what type of bulbs you have and there are as many lily bulbs as you can have hot dinners, you need to take them out of there package, put them onto newspaper and by hand, check each bulb over, you are looking for good firm bulbs, no soft mushy bits, no mould, no sort indents at the growing tip, that would indicate worm or other insects eating inside the bulb,

Next, after you check and remove any bulbs with any of the above mentioned troubles, you either prepare the planting area by adding loads of manure (well rotted horse manure) no smell and it should crumble in your hand, this allows air, feed, helps hold onto moisture in summer and helps with heat in winter.
Add this to your planting area and then start planting out the bulbs, ALL bulbs need to be planted 3 times the size of the bulb at the very least, so IF the bulb measures from root area to top of growing tip is 2 inches, then the bulbs need to be planted 6 inches deep.

As a rule of thumb, this applies to all the bulbs so like a snowdrop ends up only about 1 1/2 inch deep if the bulbs are tiny. some lilies are about 2 1/2 inch big therefore they need about 8 inches under the soil. but most bulbs want the same soil conditions unless they are grown in damp or water conditions,

The bulbs need to be planted now or as soon as because the soil will still be warm enough to get them to grow some roots before the cold weather comes and they like most Perennial plants go into winter sleep, they will be ready to set off onto their normal growing cycle come spring.

Depending how many bulbs you have, and IF your a perfectionist, you could plant them up say four to a largish pot and store indoors till you see green shoots begin to sprout in early spring and then plant them outside when the weather has warmed up a bit, but you should prepare the soil in the same way as given earlier.
Hope this put's your mind at rest and you can start checking the bulbs over right away.
Best of luck. WeeNel.

Thank you so much. There are Stargazer lillies and double lillies and to many other to name lol. I am on it right now looking them over thank you again.

Stargazer's are my most favourite flower in the garden as it's deep pink Fuchsia coloured flowers and deer Red spots are so wonderful, their perfume fills the air at night too, I like a few cut and brought in doors BUT, please be aware that the pollen from the lilies (ALL lilies) is apparently harmful to cats if you have any, (I have a cat and she never bothers being that close to my lilies) the pollen is a nightmare to remove from clothes and soft furnishings should you not remove the pollen loaded Anthers when the flowers open, this never harms the flowers nor the perfume, it prevents laundry bills and ruination of clothes IF not removed, just snip the Anthers off with small snipers and let them drop into a paper bag or similar or they drop on rugs ect, and you get the pollen all over your hands trying to pick them up, been there and done that, even sent the post card LOL.
Have a great time planting, don't worry IF they don't all flower the first year and IF you plant in a border, I always plant in clumps of 3-5-7 as odd numbers grouped together look better than one plant here and there.

You wont know the colour of the lilies until they flower I assume, this might be a good reason for planting into pots of good soil for the first year, unless you don't care IF the colours are all mixed up. in the pots you will be able to mark the bulbs when the flower and see the colours.
Not sure IF you know, but after flowering, dont cut away the foliage as it needs to die down naturally, this helps feed the bulbs as it stores the nutrients from the decaying foliage into the store for the following years flowers.
Enjoy, WeeNel.

Thank you. I am potting about 30 Stargazers and a bunch of double lillies. I also have regal blue hostas and a few others I am potting. LOT's of work. I will have an amazing lily garden in the spring though:) Thank you again.

Well done that's the best way to go, after they flower you can add a label with name, colour of flower and month of flower too, IF you place them into a flowering bed to grow in the garden soil, add plenty humus / compost when planted in groups of the same type (best way to show them off) add a garden cane so you don't tramp on the bulbs when under the ground out of sight in winter / spring, they are so easy damaged with spade / fork or feet and that's a shame as the growing tips can get broken off before they show themselves through the soil.
Have a wonderful gardening season for/ with your friends generosity and give her / him my address Paaaaaaaaalease LOL.
Best Regards. WeeNel.

I just realized you were in Scotland. What type of climate do you have there? A winter?

I am on the West coast of Scotland and our winter weather can varie from mild to freezing BUT, mostly wet, damp, dull and cold, I live right on the coast so the biting winds that come of the salty sea causes me more damage that cold, it strips the foliage and burns it at the same time, I have learned many different ways to protect my garden but not always eye catching or successful but hey, who has a perfect gardening program and the weather allows you to stick to it LOL.

Last winter was our coldest ever since records began and we had one of the warmest summers so the second (summer) was such a pleasure but the winter was hell, we had power lines down for days, could not leave our property as we were snowed in, (we live rural) but freezers and a good store cupboard are the way to go, some shrubs got broken Branches with the weight of snow, then the summer arrived and all that was just a memory LOL.
you take good care and happy gardening too.
Kindest Regards. WeeNel.

Its funny every time I see United Kingdom or Europe I always think rain and misery. I have never been there so I can not even tell you where on earth that comes from. Movies maybe? New york is either cold or to hot to stand it or raining. That is it. We have a joke that our mother nature is bipolar just like most new yorkers. This is really my first year with a garden. This year I bought, 40 thujas, 4 jane magnolias, 22 azaleas, 4 burning bushes, tons of regal blue hostas, every hydrangea bush known to man including the pee gee, and a sunflower. Now the funny thing is I have 10 Dahlias show up, 6 Hollyhocks, and three black eyed susans.
Unless someone is running in my yard planting things, which I doubt I have Cane Corsos, they had to been there all winter long. We had several feet of snow.

I have an idea about how to keep some of the critters out of the garden. I am in the process of training my min pin to attack the woodchucks and rabbits. She is 11 pounds :) My coros's have refused the job (149 and 165) pounds. They look at me like I am crazy. My little girl though is all set and ready to defend the garden. Little dog syndrome I think lol.

The dahlias surprise me as generally I think they are only hardy to zone 7 or something like that. Of course deep snow helps. The hollyhocks don't surprise me as I've had them self seed. Black Eyed Susans grow wild around here. They may do the same there. I'm only about 120miles west of you.

Doug, You know after I read your response I went next door and spoke to my neighbor who was friends with the previous owner. She said that the woman who lived here had an amazing Dahila garden. Every year the entire front of the house was covered in dinner plates. So I can only assume somehow several have survived. I have some of the most beautiful ones I have ever saw. The one pink one that is in bloom now looks like a picture. I was told that the dark pink one was a hollyhock. That also grew by itself. So did the glads in the background of the picture, but they are hardy here I believe.

I always believed that glads wouldn't make it around here, but my neighbor has some that did. We haven't had really cold winters lately and had a lot of snow cover last year. I assume that you are right in the village of Cohoes. The rivers have to help where you are.

Do you plan on digging them up this year to make sure they survive?

I am actually in Latham New York. My address is Cohoes lol. It is for post office issues. They changed it last year. Anyway I am only really one mile from cohoes. The river is less than a mile away. Yes I think I am going to. The one pink one has put out so many amazing huge flowers that I want to keep it. The others were not nearly as impressive. I think part of it is that she had about 4 inches of mulch down. Must have insulated them. Next year I am going to try a banana lotus. Two doors down from me they have 6 six live outside under heavy mulch in the winter. They are really cool looking plants.