Any other kilobulb planters out there?

Hooooh-eeee! Lady, that might be a new record, even for you!

I think I need to dig & divide this year... if I make good progress there, I might "weaken" and order some sale bulbs later in fall, but I think I spent most of my "bulb money" on things like potting soil this year, growing lots of little plants into bigger plants... got some planting there to do this fall also.

So I may have to depend on vicarious accounts of other people's fall bulb extravaganzas this year!

I really went overboard. I knew that I would as I have been planning to do a massive planting this fall ever since spring bloom season this year. The more I get planted the prettier it gets each spring.

Newyorkrita, I think you are going to be the Queen this year. Your garden will be spectacular.

I think these are my totals of fall planted bulbs over the last few years. I am working on a master spread sheet and have done the Narcissus and the Tulips so far plus many other Genus in the garden but none ot the other bulbs yet. Once that is done my counts will be more accurate. The entry work is taking me too long, but I need to have a spreed sheet besides my DG journal. DGJ is still limited in it's abilities to sort and track thing, however it is really useful for some things but hopeless in others. So it goes.

Back out to continue prepping for the Nov. Bulb Planting. It took my DH and I three days last year.

Yup, I am addicted, but I am trying to keep the number to below 3000 this year. Think I can! Patti

2012 - 2425 ordered so far, but I know there will be more come Nov.
2011 - 4637
2010 - 5085
2009 - 3739
2008 - 7235
2007 - 7003

I don't know how long it might take me to plant these as I have never had so many to plant before. At least many are the smaller bulbs which go very quickly. And my soil is very easy to dig in otherwise I would never be planting lots and lots of bulbs. Thank goodness lots of things get planted and then come back year after year like the daffodils. But tulips I have to constantly replant and I do love my tulips.

Your numbers are staggering. It must be paradise in the spring there.

Rita, I think we have the same soil and sickness. We have lots of little guys too, but like you, I must plant tulips. I try to get as many species ones as we can, so those return pretty well.

Narcissus are just A no-brainer for Nantucket's dreary spring. I have a pretty good collection of them so far, but as an addict, I can't stop at the 410 named cultivars we have. Plus we have some not included in that number that we planted before I started keeping notes about them again after the first many years of all my handwritten notes got ruined when we had a pipe break. I have figured out some of them but a not all, yet. I don't show them, but love going to the Narcissus shows in Nantucket and on the mainland. I'll bet there are some good spring Daffy shows out your away. Please let me know as that might be an excuse to go to NYC to see my son then drive out to LI to see Narcissus. I am being more tempted than ever to add more choice and expensive ones, but still am not shelling out the big bucks.

Can't wait for the sales to start. Patti

I keep getting more daffodils each year myself. Nothing saiz spring to me like daffodils and I find them so cheerful.

I did get a fair amount of crocus for this fall as in the spring I noticed that the crocus here have just about dissappeared from all my garden redos. Past time to add more. I know I ordered 500 of the large flowered crocus mix from Van Engelin. I think my total crocus from all my orders is around 900. In the spring I thought I really would get about twice as many but by the time Fall came around I figgured that would do for this year. If I want more it will just have to wait. There IS a limit to what I can get planted ha-ha! As it is, this is the most ambitious I have ever been for a single years planting.

My large flowered crocus never seem to do as well... I don't know if they get eaten by voles, or what... but my snow crocus & tommies & C. siberiaca all naturalize well & have mostly been increasing over the years.

Mine seem to do well but I have redone my garden beds here and I guess they just got lost in all the shuffels.

I am sorting, or really just sorted thru a Scheepers bulb order that the UPS guy just delivered a short while ago. I hauled the big box into my living room and checked all the bulbs. Now this is an order that I did a few days after I had ordered my massive order of 1,600 bullbs from Van Engelen. But there was still stuff I wanted and mostly in smaller quantities which is why I did get the from the Van Engelen part. That or stuff I just forgot to order. So here I now have 645 bulbs crocus, tulips and daffodils from Scheepers.

I have been planting steadly these past few weeks as luckily not everything has come at once so as I had bulb orders arrive I could get on with the planting. But that huge Van Engelen order is still to arrive so I will not be finished with the planting any time soon. Of course now I have to get going with these bulbs that just arrived., And I already feel like I have been planting fall bulbs for weeks. Actually, I HAVE been planting fall bulbs for weeks.

The thing that keeps me going and is my motivation is how stunning it will all look in the spring. And it should be a long spring show with the bulbs starting with snow crocus and ending with late tulips. And everything in between. I have daffs to add from really early to late blooming and I already know from the daffs already here that my spring daffodil bloom shows lasted for two whole months this spring. And I have lots more added or to add thus fall to make next spring even better. And the tulips. I have never gotten so many and such a wide variety of tulips before.

"Stunning" won't even begin to describe it! I think I pretty much want to camp out in your yard for a month or two... that OK? :-)

Yea, I think I will be camping out there too during bloom season. I know I will be taking pictures, pictures and more pictures.

I am currently massing all the boxes in a cool guest room and will soon sort them all out according to where they will be planted into labelled bags by location. Nothing is going into the ground until they are all here, or mostly here, so we don't have to dig in the same beds again. We still have more prep work to do to get all the beds ready to plant. But we are getting there. I did order more bulbs last week from Bert (Touch of Nature) who was having a sale. Plus we will still have the Nov. sales coming to add to the pile. So the list is still growing. Currently we have 2829 bulbs which is a modest number for us. My DH will be so pleased. I am sure we will get to about 3000 which is what I was hoping to be at for 2012. As we are running out of real estate.


newyorkrita, I know your efforts will be well worth it come spring. I can't wait to see your shots. I love seeing other people's combination. I think some of our best results are just dumb luck or from coping from others. Ma Nature does a pretty amazing job on her own too. I have planted some ugly groups, but in the end I even love them too. Patti

I sort my bulbs as best I can as soon as they arrive also. But I sure don't wait. I plant so that I don't have to try and plant everything at once.

I like to plant one area at a time, though, because then I can layer daffs & tulips & little bulbs (crocus, species tulips, alliums, etc) all in the same planting hole!

So far, I'm holding with my "buy no bulbs this fall" plan. We'll see if my resolve survives the sale season... But I did put in a lot more than I initially intended last fall, taking advantage of being able to hire a couple of neighbor girls to help dig. So I could take a break. LOL Besides, I have lots of perennials and shrubs to get into the ground this fall -- ones that I bought as little plants and up-potted for a season or two.

I have NEVER gone as bulb crazy as I have this year.

My budget is much smaller. Everything is in, and I can't wait to finish digging. I'm ready to jump in myself!

I have just over a kilo to plant. I have been waiting for the frost so I can dig the dahlia's and prepare the soil. This is really my first time of planting so many so I am very excited.

Welcome to the club! LOL Be warned... after you see the spring show that bulbs make when you start planting them in clumps and sweeps of color rather than "3 daffs here, a few crocus over there," you & your shovel are going to be getting a good workout every fall!

I sure hope so.

The last of my bulb orders just arrived from UPS. This would be my largest order of my 1,600 bulbs from Van Engelen. I am sorting thru them and putting them in piles as to what part of the yard and location they go in. Makes planting easier as I can just start on a pile and location and go plant. My living room is full of stacks and groupings of bulbs.

Take notes, too, before you start planting... tags get lost, and things you think you'll remember get forgotten, but if you've got a list of what was dug into which part of the yard, that can be really helpful. For me, it's not just a matter of IDing things later, sometimes I just don't remember what areas should be dug carefully when I'm planting other things... although at this point, it's a good assumption that any garden area except the veggie bed is probably full of bulbs. LOL

My yard is fast getting to the point of full of bulbs, at least it certainly will be after this fall is done. I have cheat sheets written that I keep were there are notes as to what goes in what garden bed and those I keep forever. And it has the named varieties. So for instance years from now, even if I don't remember, I have my notes to say which variety of daffoldils are planted at the foot of the front yard honeysuckle trellis (for instance). Many of the tulips I use the same spots and simply overplant. I used these notes before I ever ordered anything so as I knew as I was ordered what I needed and how many and where they would go. It is amazing the amount of bulbs once can fit in if one plans well.

Hurray, hurray, hurray for me. My bulbs are all finially all planted.

Of course I have been working on planting these bulbs starting in October and thru most of November. But I got finished yesterday. Was too tired to post about it yesterday.

Earlier (in October) I had posted that I had bought 4,144 bulbs. But THAT was before I added two more bulb orders. One from Bloomingbulb.com and one from Scheepers. That put my bulb total at 4,999 bulbs. I can hardly believe it. I really must be completely daft!

So –
800 dutchgrown direct from holland
72 Brecks
187 American Meadows
825 Colorblends
660 Brent& Beckies
1,600 Van Engelen
210 bloomingbulb.com
645 Scheepers

Bulbs break down as tulips for the most common, then crocus. Numbers-
Tulips- 2,866
Crocus- 1,150
Daffodils- 588
Iris Reticulata- 200
Dutch Iris- 170
Hyacinths- 25

It all adds up to 4,999 bulbs.



This message was edited Nov 27, 2012 8:33 PM

Congrats, you are still way ahead of me and will have planted about 1000 more than us. Ours are still not planted. I am in a pottery show in Boston so my focus is all about clay at the moment. Plus the weather isn't the best this week. The last of my orders arrived, so I am ready to go. But tempted by the current B&B 50% off sale, but so far I am resisting. Patti

I got the notice for the 50% off B&B sale but I did not even go and look. On purpose as I knew I just could NOT manage any more bulbs this year. I am just so relieved to be done planting the ones that I already got carried away buying.

Congrats, Rita. You must be very happy to have all your bulbs in the ground. My order from VanBourgondein was just over 4,100 bulbs this year (including 300 muscari, which I hardly count, since they are so small - lol), but that includes the bulbs I plant in memory of a friend (http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1050199/) and 500 tulips for the husband's new wife.

A few weeks ago I planted Janie's tulips and the bulbs in my two large beds. Last Sunday I planted the bulbs I force for my urns (http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1050342/), so all that remains are some hyacinths, daffodils and tulips for my new sunny garden and two crates of tulips and allium I dug up last spring to replant this fall. The weather here is still mild, however, and I feel confident EVERYTHING will be in the ground by next Sunday evening.

Well, I count all the bulbs. I figgure the smaller ones are easier so it makes up for the harder work of planting the bigger bulbs. Plus I plant my tulips deep which I guess is even more work.

Iris Reticulata is a new bulb for me. I have seen pictures of the flowers but never tried them before. Dutch Iris I love and usually plant some each fall. Then I needed crocus to replace all the crocus that just dissapeared here from all my years of redoing garden beds. I wanted to go really high on the crocus numbers, closer to 2,000 than 1,000 but I knew I just couldn't manage to deal with more bulbs that I have already ordered. So next fall I figgure I will be planting lots more crocus again.

Daffs are a staple, always have to add at least a few. But really, really went nuts on the tulips this year. I have planted my usual types of Darwins, Truimph and Late Tulips. But I also tried Emporer, Greigii, Kaufmanniana and species tulips for the first time. We will see what I think of them all next spring.

Oh, man, Rita! You need to plant just one more bulb to make it to 5000. You can't just leave it at 4999!

Ha, I am done. No more for this year. It is just going to have to stay that one bulb short. I haden't even realised that I was so very close to 5,000 until my finial tally of my bulb numbers today when I finished adding them up.

Oh c'mon, Rita. Send me your address and I'll send you the one to get you to 5000. You need to do it. Really!

hee, hee hee. :-))

I'm serious, Rita. Maybe we should get a cheering section going for Rita to get to 5000.

Go, Rita, go. Go, Rita, go.

I didn't know I was that close to 5,000 until I added up all my bulb orders today to write my post. But it really doesn't make any difference to me. Honestly!

OMG, somebody send Rita a bulb!!

I love the little bulbs like daffs, iris reticulata, etc... so easy to toss into the hole as you're covering up bigger bulbs!

Last night my mind was wandering and I was thinking about the crocus. Many years ago I remember that I bought a bag of the large flowered crocus mix locally. In fact it was at a Franks. Those went out of business many years ago already. But my crocus thrived and multiplied and put on a great show for many years. But as I did my garden redos, terraces and compleatly redoing beds, the crocus seem to have been the looser and each year got less and less. So the big push to get crocus back in the garden. I got 500 large flowered mix from Van Engelen and planted ALL of them in the southside rose garden. The rest (many different types) I planted in various places around the garden. 1,150 crocus in total so the crocus show should be good next spring.

But I would like to do more so I just know I will be ordering more for next fall. There are so many places the crocus can go, should go. I can immagine what they would look like planted en mass. Usually when I get a vision of how something in the garden could look, I go out and make it happen. So I just know more crocus are in my future.

I used the toss some smaller bulbs in after partially filling up holes after the bigger bulbs lots this year.

Anyone wants to be a kilobulb planter. You can for not too much money.

It is very tempting to buy at the Van Engelen 40% off sales as those prices are really good. Even with all the stuff that is sold out I found 1,000 more crocus that I would love to add. But I am not going to order. I feel that it is too late in the year this being the first of December already. What do I do if the ground feezes? Not going to risk it.

I am not going to try to change your mind, but if you can be resourcefull and put mulch out over the areas you wanted to plant, then even if it starts freezing, the soil would be good to plant. I have a bunch of crocus mixed left in size 7-8cm and can count them Monday if you are interested and they would cost $ 0.03 each plus shipping.