Here are most of the daffodils and tulips. It's a section under the cherry tree, where we had strawberry plants that never did very well. I think it was too shady for them. So I've pulled out the strawberry plants, and put an assortment of yellow and white daffodils, and the mixed Darwin hybrid tulips (Darwin hybrids naturalize in our area). This area of the garden is in view from the kitchen and family room windows.
I've also been working in an area in view of the driveway, breakfast room/nook, and walkway up to the house, planting yellow daffodils and grape hyacinth. Those pesky squirrels have been digging up the grape hyacinth, chewing on them a bit then moving on to the next. Fortunately, they leave the daffodils alone. I'm going to make up some red pepper spray to spray over the grape hyacinth. I'll need to spray near-daily, as it's very, very wet here this March.
About half of the pink, large Dutch hyacinth are in an area along the walk to the pond (where I had a few other pink hyacinth), and the other half I used in pots, (such as these in the photo below), on the deck.
Most of what I planted, I put in view of the house. Some springs, it is so rainy (like this year) that I have very little opportunity to get outside to see the flowers. So having the flowers in view of the house allows us to enjoy the blooms even when we can't be outdoors.
Buying all of these bulbs on clearance worked out very well for me. I was able to save 75% on all of the bulbs, pot them in early winter after Christmas when I had time, then move them outdoors as the weather became manageable for outdoor gardening. I will definitely be doing this again next year!
You know, I often just try something out, even when I don't know if it will work. Some times these experiments work out, and sometimes they don't. But I figure that I'll never know if something will work if I don't try. And now, for the future, I know that I can buy bulbs in late fall, plant in pots in the garage, then move them outside when the temps are not so freezing, to be planted in the ground without a huge rush. In all of my replanting, I only came across about 3 bulbs which rotted in the pots, out of 155 bulbs. That's pretty good, I think. I could have just as easily lost a few bulbs over winter, if directly planted in the ground in fall.
To give cover to the ground after the spring bulbs are done for the season, I've started some annuals from seeds, under grow lights, to take their place later in spring.
