where do you order bulbs from ?

To date I only have 2 or 3 different daffodils and only odd ball tulips. Can you please give me a few sites to order from. The only place I've ever known about is Brecks.
I want daffodils and tulips.
Thanks for your help. I'm out to garden now.
Deb

Buggy Crazy is great for daffodils. She has many different varieties and ships in July. I planted a bunch last July and they are growing beautifully this spring.

http://buggycrazy.vstore.ca/index.php/cName/summer-catalog-sold-maywinter-daffodils


This message was edited Apr 26, 2008 9:08 AM

I've gotten lots of great daffs from eflowergarden (and/or Touch of Nature, their sister company) at fantastic prices- I always check there first. Brent and Becky's Bulbs is another favorite source of mine, but I'm really cheap, so I usually wait and get in on their 1/2 off sale at the end of season.

I agree with magnolialover too, buggycrazy is an awesome vendor!

Buggy buries the competition for quality and size of daff bulbs too. Have gotten some from Jungs and eFlowerGarden, they were fine, but again with Buggy, she is just awesome from personal attention with questions to quality of bulbs.

I can't help it. I love spreading the Buggy word ^_^

Why is everything on her site always marked sold out? I'm looking at what would presumably be the current, summer catalog and everything there is sold out too.

If you read the information on the homepage, you will see that the summer catalog should be up in early May. For her website, she has to work within the confines of the "vstore" template. Rather than delete all of her listings, she uses "soldout" to indicate they are not currently available for ordering. This is important to her past customers (but confusing to newbies) because we use the site as a reference for past orders. She offers a lot of information on growing conditions, seed starting, etc.

The difference between buggy and the other vendors listed above is she grows what she sells. And she digs and cleans just prior to shipping. If you have any questions about what is availble and when, just email her.

Just from reading here and looking at Buggy's site I learned that the earlier you purchase the better. People are waiting for the opening order day and stuff moves out fast! By this late in the season, the lilies are all spoken for. I tend to miss the prime order times and show up too late:lol: I'm going to give it a try again later this season.

John Scheepers/Van Engelen is an EXCELLENT source for top-notch spring bulbs at good prices. Unfortunately you'll have to place your order for delivery next fall.

Don't forget about the Co-op Forums here at DG.

pard, thanks for chiming in here.

Buggy ships lilies in FALL only, freshly dug just for you. For lilies she opens up in early August, but you can see what is available on the site now. It makes for great quick selection when it actually goes up and all of the selections go from "sold out" to order now status.

Let me tell you this, there is absolutely nothing like freshly dug and service like hers. She's absolutely fabulous.

Wow !, I just got back to check if anyone had offered and answer. Thank you ALL for your input. I'm off to search some sites now.
I'll probably be back with some more questions for you all later.

Another resource I always like to remind people about is joining organizations such as The American Daffodil Society, and in turn, your local regional chapter. The members are a fantastic bunch of growers and you will be able to participate in local chapter group buys which are much like the coop's here. They tend to specialize in the varieties that are best for your geographical area--and you can pick up many lesser known, but excellent varieties and at great prices. I've picked up favorite daff's this way.

http://daffodilusa.org/

Debbie
=)

Thanks Debbie. Great idea!

There must be none good for my area we do not even have a chapter here. Oh well not to say that I will not keep trying to grow them :o)

I have bought some lovely bulbs from brent and Beckys and I get some daffs from David Burdick. I say some because David Burdick has the rarer and unusual daffs with the price tags to prove it. He just did an article on daffodils in a recent Horticulture magazine issue.
It's posted on their website.
Here's the address:
http://www.hortmag.com/article/Sunny_Delights/
The magazine had more daffodil pictures in it than the website does. Dave's operation is here in MA somewhere I think. Occasionally he shows up at the Society Row Plant Sale either in Wellesley or out at Tower Hill in West Boylston. I spent a lovely time last time I saw him talking about white daffodils. He does have sales too.
Martha

I have ordered from VanEngelen and K. Van Bourgondien & Sons for several years and feel both do a good job with price and quality.

I am a new bulb gardener and really liked what I got from John Scheepers. The daffodil bulbs were all very large, and most had new bulbs already - it was like getting two for the price of one. Here are a few pics of our yard...

tulips coming up...

N. "Sailboat" and muscari

And be sure to check out "Touch of Nature" for very nice bulbs at very good prices. A favorite of many DGers.

Excellent personal customer service too.

http://www.touchofnature.com/

Check out Eflowers.com

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/3281/

Bleek is the Eflowers representative on Dave's. Look for his sales and co-ops. Last November I purchased (among other things) 200 Monte Carlo Double early tulips for $30 from Bleek. Made an outstanding border this spring.

Here was his final sale last fall:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/787296/

Yes, a very good source--Bleek is associated with both Eflowers and Touch of Nature--a good guy to get to know!

And I got some great bulbs from the end of season sale, too!

(He's listed another great sale on the classifieds right now.)

Wow !, again thank you to everyone . I have really been too busy to even study these sites that have been posted for me earlier. I really appreciate everyones input and help. At least I can still order in the fall and it will be perfect timing.

Hi all, theres a great co-op going on now in DG,

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/851557/

Bulbs are from Van Engelen

Beautiful tulips and other bulbs and great prices too : ) , come join the fun.

OPENS-5/21/08
CLOSES-5-26-08

Question for LeawoodGardener and others that have such a beautiful tulip area. When your tulips are spent do you dig them up or leave in ground?

What do you do with the large patch of ground after the show on your tulips?

I notice over in Leawood Ks at the intersections they were digging the tulips up and looks like they will be adding other summer type flowers. Is that what most of you do with such large areas of tulips and other types of bulbs?

Thanks for any info, ahhhh, I ordered over 400 bulbs , different types so need to do my homework b/4 the planting time this fall

Linda, usually tulips used in large displays are grown as annuals and replaced with bedding plants when bloom is done. Some tulip varieties are better at perennializing than others, but those that do require dry summer dormancy to re bloom well. I've known people who dig the bulbs and store them dry, then replant in fall, which is good if they're growing in areas where summer annuals that need regular watering are used to carry on the display. But if you grow them in spots that dry out in summer they can be left in the ground, and benefit from annual applications of bulb fertilizer. Some hybrid tulip varieties, even with the best of care, don't rebloom reliably. I've found Darwin Hybrids, Late Singles, and species to be my best perennial tulips, but from time to time run into another that surprises me.

For me, tulips are annuals (albeit EXPENSIVE annuals). The plans for this large bed are still formulating in my brain. Part of me wants to turn it into a knot garden with boxwood hedges forming the 'knot' and annuals in the blank spaces. That would mean even MORE hedge trimming, which is already a large burden in my yard. It would also mean it would take less tulips when I plant in the fall (there were 750 in this display). On the other hand, I could take the easy way out and put in a couple flats of begonias or impatiens and 'plan' a little longer. My back and my checkbook say this might be the best route.

LeawoodG, that's a good point you hinted upon on your use of tulips as annuals. For formal displays, even if tulips do re bloom reliably, they're not well suited for perennial use. When tulips re bloom there are typically many different sizes and heights of bloom, and the uniformity needed for a formal display is lost. For a casual, cottage type garden the look can be graceful and work nicely.

Leawood, I had an idea about your knot garden. Perhaps something like Spicy Globe basil, or one of the very compact, trimmed looking varieties would be an option to play with. Very easy and inexpensive to start lots from seed (and basils are extra easy from seed), and you could get ideas from seeing them in place as to whether you ultimately want to replace them with permanent plants. Possibly a way of seeing if you'll like it well enough before you take the plunge and commit to more hedge trimming.

Thank you both , my goodness my homework has begun. I plan on doing areas with 5,10,15, 20 tulip patches and just leave in the ground growing perennials, then the height size will not matter each year. That cottage look you speak of gemini, I like that !!!!

Oh and I can see how that uneveness would not go over well in a very large area for a formal look. WOW what a lot of work. OH but how beautiful Leawood.

Dividing, when should that be done ? Well all tulips produce more bulbs if left to perennialize?


gemini

That's a GREAT idea! Do a 'prototype' and decide if you like the look.

Thanks for the suggestion - I'll pick up some seeds today!

G.

Cool, Leawood! Glad to help :-)

Linda, I've had some tulips have a few random blooms the 2nd year, and only leaves the 3rd. Then sometimes several years later I've been surprised to find and handful of blooms from some I thought were long gone. So not necessarily "over", but sort of hit and miss. The bulbs split into several smaller bulbs that often require a few years to reach blooming size again, but I've never really had them increase to the point of needing dividing like daffodils. I like to try different cultivars and see which ones are most reliable. One I happened upon was a lavender-purple late double (I think Lilac (?) something was the name, have to look for that) that bloomed for 4 or 5 years running. In my informal garden, I actually like the 2nd year and beyond display better; uniformity looks out of place here, LOL.

Ths gemini, good to know I can just leave in the ground and wait to be surprised. I live in the country and formal would be out of place here as well. Got the best of both worlds. I travel to Kansas to meet up with clients so I see the beautiful formal gardens too.

I would love to go to KY and walk those mountains