What bulbs will you order for fall planting?!

I am ordering
-Hyacinthoides hispanica 'Excelsior'---I put in 50 a few years back and now must have 250 or more. They are a lovely blue which goes with white Tulip 'Francoise' and purple Tulips 'Negrita' which bloom at about the same time for me.

-Arum italicum 'Marmoratum' from Brent and Becky's--green and white leaves starting in Sept that last into summer (in my Zone 9 garden) , and then in early summer they have a creamy white bloom followed by spikes of bright red-orange seeds. All parts are poisonous so all the critters leave them alone. I use them as ground cover under shrubs and a big tree , and they come back year after year. The English call these plants 'Lords and Ladies' and I have seen the leaves used in small scale spring flower arrangements.

--Narcissus 'Geranium' --got some in a mix and they were so wonderfully fragrant and long lasting that I've got to have more. They also bloom late to extend my narcissus season.

--Narcissus tazetta 'Ariel' from McClure and Zimmerman --a paperwhite for growing in pots--supposed to be early and shorter so they won't topple over (I hope).

--Tulip orphanidea flava from McClure and Zimmerman after seeing an article on species tulips

--and of course a few new hyacinths for a new bed by the driveway---
'City of Bradford', 'Purple Voice', 'Blue Pearl', from Scheepers
' Paul Hermann', 'Red Rocket' from Brecks
'Marconi'. 'Amethyst' from Old House Gardens
'Miss Saigon', 'Red Diamond' from Brent and Becky's
'Mirtilos' from Bulbs Direct
'Snow Crystals', 'Purple Passion', 'Prince of Love' --all doubles from Wayside
btw I have found that both deer and gophers leave my hyacinths alone. Wish I could say the same for snails and slugs--although Slug-go does work.

Chris, what a colorful and fragrant hyacinth display to look forward to! I'm a firm believer one can never have too many hyacinths!

Tammy-- couldn't open your links, but the daffs you chose sound like new or rare ones to me. What catalogs are you shopping from?

Yes, Chris--looks like you will have quite the elegant and colorful spring border with all the hyacinths and then the orders from B & B, McClure & Zimmerman, and the others too. You must be really pouring over those catalogs!

Gem-- Thanks for the encouragement about the tulips I may try Ro-pel pre-planting treatment on the bulbs for the burrowing critters and try to be more diligent with the Deer Scram when shoots appear--but that requires major commitment!

I would love to try the tall ones since you have had luck with them, though, and could do them in a specially protected area perhaps.

Voss-- I read a newspaper article about Southern Bulbs (I think NYT or WSJ) saying it was started by a recent (B-school?) graduate who thought there should be some sources for heritage bulbs for southwestern gardens. Sounded like a a good idea so I hope his business takes off.

It's called Bulb Guard. I just got it a couple days ago.

I just ordered a couple peonies: Festiva Maxima and Bowl of Beauty. I'll also have a lot of irises to plant. There is one daffodil and one more tulip that I want to get. I also need to order garlic for fall planting. The tulip is Pink Fountain, and I think the daffodil is called Replete.

t, if you're just using some clumps to brighten protected areas closer to the house and walkways, planting in pots worked well for me in a mole&vole playground. Those would be areas you would'nt want to look at dying foliage anyway, so you could yank them out right after blooming and replace with annuals or tender perennials. Bloodmeal has helped me keep rabbits under control too.

gem--Do you leave your pots out all winter?

I did pots in 2005 and kept them in the garage until March--then moved them around, protecting them from the varmints, trying to keep them in the sun, and not freezing, etc., etc. It was a lot of work. Of course, I thought they were beautiful when they bloomed!! But definitely a LOT of work.

You're right about whisking them away for that ugly post bloom phase, though! Brilliant!

Yes, I just planted the pot and all, so they performed just as if they'd been just in the ground. When some of them bloomed, the color was'nt quite right with other plants around them, so I just yanked the pots out and stuck them in containers in other parts of the garden. It was fun to have instant color in those areas instead of having to try to remember to plant bulbs there in fall and wait a whole year to see the results.

Sorry for the long pause in answering your question Tobasco - was out of town
a few days. I have terrible trouble with Van Engelen links! www.vanengelen.com

Tam

Yes, I don't know why VanEngelen's links are so fussy. It's a nice website though to navigate around in.

So much so that I just over spent my bulb budget by 200% this morning! So much for being restrained.

What threw me off was purchase of my "Lawn of Dreams" website special (purple tommy crocuses). I am such a sucker for a the 'website specials' much less one promising the 'lawn of dreams' LOL and then the 'Single Early Tulip Collection' wasn't what I really meant to buy but I couldn't deny myself (what a bargain! (but not really!))...

totally irrational. I won't even go into how I deviated on the B & B site and let's just leave it at that for now! LOL

Do they have the 3 day cancellation law for tulip orders, I wonder?

I ordered those Lawn of Dreams tommies last year. They are just adorable.
I didn't plant 'em in the lawn though.

Tammy--did the critters get your 'tommies' last year? I have read that they are somewhat resistant to them...

I did not have any troubles with the tommies. I did however lose all but one of my three hundred red tulips
and got none of the 300 purple ones. So the critters must have been snoozing that early in the spring but
woke up with a real appetite when they smelled my tulips. LOL

Tammy, I would have had a major cow fit over that!

Yeah... I can't say that I was exactly thrilled. But I learned that there are only a few places
on my property that I can plant my tulips - places very close to the house & patrolled by my
wonderful kitties.

Tam

Good to know your tommies escaped the deer buffet.

It's so too bad about the tulips having to be so protected...
That is maddening!!

I am ordering a cool new Daffodil from WFF ' "Popeye"

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/141530-product.html

as well as a new Hyacinth "Apricot Passion"

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/320220-product.html

and then of course a bunch of stuff fromthe always great Old House Gardens!

http://www.oldhousegardens.com/

Steve--you're going to have a quite 'up to the moment' bulb garden again! Popeye looks quite jaunty.

I thought it was interesting that WFF suggested 'Plum Pudding' heuchera with the apricot hyacinth.---although maybe it's too hot in Fort Worth for heucheras? t.

Hmm tabasco I have never grown them! I will have to investigate more.....though I suspect you're right!

I just made what might be my last bulb order for the fall. Garlic! I intend to post garlic bulbs around my veggie patch as sentries. Then I'll eat them. Yum!

If I plant daffodils with my tulips, will they help keep away varmints? I have a real problem with critters digging up seeds, potatoes, etc.

Didn't need to order garlic. Garlic from ethnic stores will sprout. From the seven American grocers (with many names) it is usually chemically killed.

I've actually had good luck planting the grocery store garlic. Maybe its
a regional thing, irradiating it to kill it?
Tam

I wonder if we just bought a big bag of garlic cloves and planted them around the tulips (and other bulbs critters love) if they would be an effective and cheap deterrent?

I noticed my garden beds with lots of alliums planted in them last spring were fairly ignored by the moles and voles, etc....

If we didn't want the garlic actually blooming, we could lop it off but get the benefit of the odor as deterrent.

Maybe I'll try this scheme!

I wonder if ORGANIC grocery store garlic would work if you planted it.

But all moot in my case. I ordered tons. Now if I can just refrain from eating them long enough to get them into the ground....

I am going to the farmers' market this weekend and see if I can get a bushel of garlic... some I could can or pickle too, couldn't I?

By the way, has anyone checked out their area Daffodil Society?

http://daffodilusa.org/soc.html

I just sent a check to the Southwestern Ohio Daffodil Society Bulb Sale and asked them to pick out several kinds of specimen bulbs so that I can begin showing daffs at their spring shows. I wonder how that will work out?! I hope they send along a 'mentor' too!

They offered a list of about 40 cultivars, most of them daffs imported from New Zealand and Scotland and different exotic places. The prices were really great (for specimen show bulbs-- something like 3 for $5 or 5 for $5) so I hope it works out. This way I don't have to pay for shipping and the phyto-sanitary certificates for imports and still get interesting bulbs. (I hope, that is!).

They were also offering other (rarer) bulbs at very good prices.

And I am going to try to go to the Ohio Lily Society Fall Meeting and Bulb Sale: October 22, 2006 at Kingwood Center and Gardens, Mansfield, OH (A shameless plug.)

And here's a fun interactive map that shows all the regional Lily Societies (so you can find one near you!)

http://www.lilies.org/regionalmap.html

http://www.lilies.org/regionals.html

I think they have pretty good 'deals' on bulbs and lots of good info at these society meetings.

Well, being new to the thread, i have to admit i am a costco buyer. Good, cheap, easy. I do get the "fever" reading everyone's bulb lists though.

My hang up on bulbs is the 5000 holes that need to be dug and filled.

Does anyone use blood meal for fertilizer or is there something better?

The plant "bug" is highly contagious. DH went to Walmart today, and happened to "pass by" the plant dept. He bought about 15 irises, 2 full bags of misc daylily bulbs, and 40 tulips. Color coordinated even!

I am so proud.

Hi, pegdog--

Brent & Becky Heath (from Brent & Becky's Bulbs in Virginia) talked about bulb planting in this article http://www.dailypress.com/features/home/garden/gardens/perennials/dp-bulbbuyo19oct20,1,214145.story?coll=dp-features-perennials&ctrack=1&cset=true

If I recall correctly from other articles, I think the modern thinking is that bone meal can attract the dreaded 'critters'.

I use an NPK fertilizer that is high in phosphorous mixed well in the soil when I make perennial daffodil beds. (I don't really know if it matters much, though, if your soil is pretty good. ) I do give my daffs a liquid foliar feed when they are in high bloom to help the foliage develop.

Do you buy 5000 bulbs in a season?!! That is a lot of holes! When we do loads of bulbs we dig out a section and plant 'en masse'. I guess a lot of people use those attachments to their drills to make holes--it depends on how hard your soil is though...

I would buy bulbs at Costco but we're not members anymore. (My husband said it was more expensive to belong to Costco than a country club!-- because of all the silly stuff I would buy !)

My peonies and some of my irises arrived today!

Now I have to figure out where to plant them. The place where I wanted to plant one of my peonies has a tree root running through it. A big tree root. I'm afraid that if I plant there neither my peony or my tree root will benefit.

Don't ya hate that? Couldn't that tree grow a root in a convenient direction??

My dream is to have my garden beds magically appear where I need them, fully prepared.
Somehow no matter how many I make, I manage to fill them before I've planted all my acquisitions.

This year I'm tucking my daffodils in the grassy slopes. No prep required.

Tam

Thank goodness for bulbs!

Amen to that! Little miracles ... an entire plant & flower tucked away
in a little time capsule.

Tam

I bought a few 'cum laude' narcissi yesterday at WFF. I saw them at the Smith Bulb Show this spring and had to have them.

Ooooo... those are beauties!

I put in an order to Iris Greens, and only tonight found out that they decided to cancel it A MONTH AGO! Did they use my e-mail to let me know? NO! Did they call me on the phone to let me know? NO! They put a notation on my PAYPAL ACCOUNT! I found out about it by accident!

So I started checking my other orders. Bluestone Perennials has no record of my order. Funny. My money was real enough to them. According to Paradise Gardens, I have never ordered from them. More money gone. I can't log into the Dutch Gardens site to even CHECK my order that I made from them! More money gone. High Country Gardens sent me my garden supplies, but their order confirmation to me says, "Your plants will be shipped on not applicable." So no crocuses.

And now it's too late to order, anyway. I tried a couple times at a couple different sites.

I'll have to wait until 2008 or 2009 before I can have flowering bulbs. That is, if I can find an honest company to deal with!

I am so horribly depressed about this! I had so looked forward to having a garden, and now all I'm ever going to have is dirt!

I'm just going to give up on the idea of gardening. It's been nothing but heartache. And with a couple hundred dollars p***** down the drain, I simply can't afford to make duplicate orders, even if I could find anyone willing to ship anything to me, who actually would honor my order.

How horrible! I've had absolutely no issues with Van Engelen and Brent & Becky's has a fantastic
reputation. I think I saw you got hosed in the TNN#1 coop too? I have to believe you'll have good
luck coming to make up for all the troubles. Balance of karma.
Tam

Good Morning White_Hydrangea !
I know you are so saddened and frustrated by your recent information regarding your orders, BUT ..... I have ordered many times from Dutch Gardens, I started working with them WAY before I ever joined Dave's, so I have never even looked at their rating here...even though NOW I check DG's opinion on everyone before I spend my hard earned $$$. I do believe Dutch will make good on your order in some way. They have been so good to me.
Keep an eye on the trade forum for things you WANT and NEED, you're bound to find some trades and some lovely traders that will share with you for stamped self addressed Bubble envelopes. When I was a newby 2 years ago it blew my mind at the generosity of gardeners that were literally giving away their beautiful flowers: bulbs, cuttings, seeds, etc, etc for just the cost of a bubble envelope and postage. Truly did amaze me. There are some incredible generous people here....I wish I had time to run through the list of my new friends that have sent me TONS of great stuff to help me get started. THEY will never be forgotten. So, fret not, my new friend. It will be okay. God says "Let not your heart be troubled" even in the small things. I have not placed any orders yet for Fall stuff, but if I get something you want, its yours :) Now relax, go have a cup of coffee or tea, put a smile on your face and ENJOY ! And remember...even though they bring us tremendous joy, they are only flowers and they are replaceble, almost always.
God bless you and yours, Margo

Well - I finally got my order in yesterday. I went crazy I suppose. (When I "confessed" to my
DH about just how many I ordered, he said something about it was just a start. I guess he
knows me too well!) Here's my list:

ALLIUM CERNUUM 50
ALLIUM UNIFOLIUM 100
FRITILLARIA ACMOPETALA 5
FRITILLARIA PALLIDIFLORA 10
IRIS HIST KATHARINE HODGKIN/RK 50
IRIS RETICULATA CANTAB/RK 100
IRIS RETICULATA PIXIE/RK 50
HYACINTHOIDES HISPANICA MIX 100
LILY BUFF PIXIE /ASIATIC 5
LILY CRIMSON PIXIE /ASIATIC 5
LILY LEMON PIXIE /ASIATIC 5
LILY PEACH PIXIE /ASIATIC 5
NARCISSUS BARRETT BROWNING 100
NARCISSUS DELIBES 100
NARCISSUS FORTISSIMO 100
NARCISSUS HAWERA 100
NARCISSUS IPI TOMBI 100
NARCISSUS QUAIL 100

I did get a nice e-mail from Dutch Gardens ensuring me that my order is on file and in process, but dang it, I can't find an original order confirmation e-mail from them.

I spent a lot of last night ordering more bulbs. I even went to ebay to try to get the Batik.

It's so frustrating. I had planned my beds according to color, and I had everything coordinated. Now it's all up for grabs.

Big Dipper Farms and Schreiners came through in short order, though, so I have something to plant today.

Is that the Batik Iris you are after?