best place to buy fall bulbs???reccommendations please!

i want to plant a LOT of bulbs . alliums lilys and arums and fritillaria meleagris.. any reccommendations on where to buy would be great! thanks
taya

Taya-
Check out the Garden Watch Dog.

The list of the top 30 include some that sell bulbs.
I have bought bulbs from High Country and Bluestone and have been very satisfied.

Not on the top 30 list, but some place else I really like is John Scheepers/Van Engelen, Inc..

ROX

to plant a A LOT try Van Engelen. When I've had a problem, they credited my account very quickly. The only time I had to call and talk to someone twice was when half of a sale order didn't get to me. Once I called back as requested, the following day they realized that the problem was there's and credited my account on the spot. I even mentioned that only 1/2 of one bulb didn't make it for me the previous spring, while placing my fall order....the gave me 50% credit. It was most likely too much rain that spring, but they said they'd credit me anyway. The bulbs are nice and fresh.

better hurry, I think they are starting to run out of some things, like Frit. Melagris.
cynthia

Hi, greenobsessed--

Check out the garden bulbs from Scheepers/VanEngelen and Brent & Becky's, and Colorblends if you want already planned pairings. If you are a sale shopper, most of the on-line bulb suppliers have sales starting in November...but the inventory may be picked over. I usually try to hold off for these. VanEngelen has pretty good prices on groups of 100 or so as far as I can determine.

Also, many folks like Touch of Nature as a basic bulb supplier. I bought hundreds of Allium from him (Bleek) last year and they were all very big and voluptuous!

If you like lilies, be sure to check out BuggyCrazy's site--she is well known for her generous sized bulbs and good customer care. She also carries some 'garden variety' daffs, etc. The other most popular lily suppliers are Lillygarden, LillyNook and B & G if you require a wide variety of choices.

I bought several bags of nice looking tulips and daffs from Home Depot and Lowes to fill in the back yard. I have found that sometimes these bulbs are the best value for money for the basics, although others may disagree. They go on sale too. And no shipping charges.

My choicest bulbs come from the lily society, daff society, and the other garden club sales for special projects. Or specialist bulb suppliers listed on the American Daffodil Society website. Usually anyone can shop at the different garden club sales...just check their websites for dates and times.

But as everyone has said, be sure to check Garden Watchdog for the reviews...some well known suppliers who send out lots of mailings are not so reliable to deal with.

Have fun. t.

Yes the recommendation to use GardenWatchDog is the right one. One thing I didn't know until I used it awhile is that you can do an Advanced Search by selecting 'Search' at the top of the Garden WatchDog page and in the "Category:" pulldown you can select 'Bulbs: Daffodils' or 'Bulbs: Spring-blooming' etc. to search for all companies selling these types of bulbs. A useful way to narrow down companies to check out. Or if you know the company name the easiest way is to go right to the letter in the 'Browse by first letter' section this seems to work the best as to search by company name you seem to need the exact name to make a match.

May I also recommend Old House Gardens:
www.oldhousegardens.com

They sell unusual, heirloom bulbs that you can't find anywhere else and have excellent customer service. Also I second John Scheepers.

Sue

what tabasco said about the sales is right on. Here in the south, we need to order tulips early and get them in the fridge. But other bulbs are great too. Last year a friend order her anemones from toughofnature and got a really good price and BIGGER corms than I got.

BTW VE's end of seson sale starts Nov. 13th....but who's counting?

cynthia

I bought some great frit. meleagris last year from Colorblends. I just checked Garden Watchdog-- they have a 100% rating. You can get 100 bulbs (of the frits) for $18.00. Every bulb that I got from them last year was huge & in great condition. They have some beautiful tulip combos too. Last year I bought Sultans of Spring & had people literally gawking (in a good way!). They have clever names for a lot of their combos--- my favorite is "Stop the Car."

I took the advice of a DG'er and checked out my local daffodil society, it turns out that they are in the town right next to mine and have a members only bulb sale every November. (that's when we plant them here)

I think it will be well worth the $5 annual fee

:)

plantnutga

thanks to all of you!!! i just ordered from beckys and colorblends ...
taya

What has everyone else experienced with Home Depot's bulb suppliers "Growing Colors?" I have personally experienced that they are the best as far as locally-available. Lowe's has some brand of bulbs that is invariable mislabeled.

k you show up EVERY where?!i think size of the bulbs is the thing there as well as mis labeling or general naming ? dont you?

Box store bulbs are usually decent (but not good) size, but I believe that mislabeling of variety is the number one problem. Mind you, if the bags are not translucent, size (or even existence!) of bulbs is questionable.
I'm not everywhere T; don't have time; just here and there!
It's bulb season, though.
K the officious

I bought some crocus bulbs and iris rhizomes from Home Depot last weekend. They looked to be healthy and of a good size.

Although this is about bulbs, if you want to include iris rhizomes by all means definitely check out Schreiners. Their rhizomes are huge and healthy. They ship quickly, and the rhizomes are well packaged. I just received some rhizomes today from another company. They look healthy and they're sized medium to large. But they weren't packed well at all. They weren't wrapped in anything, just put into the box. And of course they tumbled all around on their route here, which I doubt is good for them.

I absolutely am going to keep a list of what I planted where and where did it originally come from. That way I can lay credit (or blame!) where it's due.

A lot of people don't like them but a company I have had good experience with as far as bulb size and quality goes is White Flower Farm - have never had a bad bulb from thern. I also think OHG and Van Engelen/John Scheepers are great. Another good company I have used is Wooden Shoe Bulb Farm.

I just got some excellent looking Tulips from WhiteFlower Farm. They offer things you just can't get anywhere else. Like quality 'American' series Orienpet Lilium, or striped and fringed tulips.

i had a plant gaurantee argument years ago (when i was fist starting to gaden)with them . they sent me the limpest bunch of bare root plants and i tried to send the stuff back and invoke the guarantee and theywouldnt take the stuff back and reported my revoked pament to the credit beaurau which i didnt discover till i went to get a mortgage!

Whoah. You've got me weary now.

(Edited to add:)
You can get your rightful revenge here:
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/96/
And how did that turn out with the credit bureau?

This message was edited Sep 21, 2006 7:59 PM

k dont be weary be leery. i ended up paying it off in order to just keep the mortgage process rolling ..oh and i got some triumph tulips at sams club of all places!
t

oh and to ALL of you thanks so much again for all your advice !!!!

As mentioned before White Flower Farm bulbs are huge (price can be too) and of top notch quality. I didn't regret the cost once I saw em bloom.

I'll comment on that when my Lilium arrive from W.F.F. - a bulb that is often the crux of no little (clears throat) "discussion."

Good News for me from the South West Ohio Daffodil Society bulb sale ( I think )--

I was very pleased with my order this fall from the nice people at our local Daff group--

I sent them $25 and they sent me back (I asked them to choose for me):

1 Little Ruby; 2W-R USA 1999 Reed [incentive gift]
10 Monticello 1W-Y 1972 Panill 3/$3
4 Irish Coffee 3Y-YYO USA 1967 Mitsch 3/$3
6 Uncle Duncan 1Y-O England 1991 Pearson 3/$3
6 Tru 3W-WWy Australia 1989 Jackson
5 Broadway Village 2Y YRR England 1985 Postles 3/$3
1 (double) Chicken Hill 1YYW-WWY USA 2000 Reed 1/$5
16 Ben Avon 1W-W England 1978 Lea 5/$3
2 Tyson's Corner 3W-GYR 1988 Pannill 1/$3

These are specialty daffodils that I am going to try to 'grow and show' next spring (newbie at this). Several are imported and if I tried to order them myself I would have had to pay for the photosanitary permits and the postage. So I am very happy with my first venture into specialty daffodils.

But I guess the proof will be in what comes up in spring!

It might be a bit late to join this thread, but I have received wonderful bulbs from Duth Gardens. The bulbs are HUGE, and the flowers they produce are spectacular. I order from their on-line catalog at:

http://www.dutchgardens.com/

You can also get a printed catalog. I keep mine by the bed and use it to put myself to sleep dreaming about wonderful spring flowers. ( ;< )

Jeannine

bumping this up because Dutch Gardens is doing free shipping now for orders over $35. I've always had exceptional (large) bulbs from them.

Also wanted to add that when we were in NC at the end of September, I put a bunch of bulbs in for my MIL that we bought at Sam's Club (in those $14 boxes). I was especially pleased with the size of the bulbs in the mixed boxes of grape hyacinth and mini yellow daffodils. The 'King Alfred' daffs were on the small size, but I just planted them in clumps... I think there were 60 or was it 80 in the box, so the price seemed appropriate to the size.

I just found 'Rip van Winkle' daffs (looking for them for my mom) at Brent & Becky's, 100 for $28, best price I've found since not everyone has them this year (I could swear I saw them everywhere last year haha). Next year, I'll have to remember that Bluestone has some great prices but sells out quickly LOL.

I've been very satisfied with bulbs received from John Scheepers (selection, size, & price)
Dutch Gardens (customer service), Buggy Crazy (size and service), Gilbert H Wild (price),
and Brent & Becky's (selection) except their lilies (maybe virused).