Geoforce, I checked my bulb spreadsheet. I started with 50 frits from White Flower Farm for $7.15. They were purchased in the fall of 2002. They were planted in a narrow strip near the patio about 6 inches by 24 inches and have spread out on 3 sides to 15 inches by 40 inches. Anna Beth, Thanks for the complement about the hosta bed. The truth is that hosta bed has had so many renovations that it is a family joke. Nobody ever gets things the way they want the first time, or sometimes the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time! First off the tree was small, and surrounded with sun-loving groundcover junipers planted by a landscape firm. I edged the area in annuals and planted a few sun loving perennials between shrubs. (The garden faces due South and there is/was no canopy or shade cover, so everything in the yard is/was geared to sun lovers). As the tree grew it provided more and more very dense shade. The junipers got shabby and were eventually removed, but I couldn't get the stumps out, so I planted around them. Eventually they rotted out enough I could pry them out of the ground. Very messy job - squished everything in the area. The sun loving perennials got less and less sun. When I eventually decided to remake the bed into a shade bed, I read all kinds of books on shade plants, made my list of plants, and then made several serious mistakes. (BTW, although I had not gardened in shade in many years, I once had an urban shade garden for 15 years. But this time I wanted a fancier garden with more variety - pride goeth before a fall). In my enthusiasm I selected too many varieties of plants from my local nurseries, and bought them in too large a quantity. Lastly I ordered a marvelous collection of hostas from a well-known catalog company and ended up with half-dead hostas, many so tiny I could hardly see them (or find any roots). So I added annuals and planted minor bulbs where the hostas didn't make it. Some of the hostas grew like crazy (the big plain green one in the picture, which clearly isn't what I paid for, did especially well), while some of them lived but seem permanently stunted. Other hostas turned out to be bigger or smaller varieties than I thought they would be. Just about every plant that I bought in excess did really great, while the single plants were less enthusiastic. Since that time, I have bought some new hostas, removed many other perennials & some hostas, and re-arranged endlessly. When I saw your email I had just come in from outside where I was standing with clipboard in hand in front of the shade bed plotting out yet more changes for next spring - the bed's too crowded right now to even figure out what is where! LOL BTW, I have also tried the white, pink, purple, & black tulip thing. Actually it is quite pretty, a little messy, but nothing will clash badly. The main problem, or advantage depending on how you look at it, is that the tulips will bloom when they want to & not necessarily when you thought they would. :~) Some will do better than others. Just make sure that you make notes on what you liked and what did well for you. These days I usually restrict myself to two varieties in my front yard beds, usually 100 of one and 50 of the other. These tulips are used as annuals in a semi-circle some 3-4 ft deep and 8 ft long. You'd have to double/triple that for your 7 x 15 ft bed if you wanted solid tulips. In the backyard I use smaller quantities of tulips here and there, but mostly rely on daffodils for their perennial quality & many minor bulbs which work better in my mixed perennial shrub borders. Bulbs are for fun - don't worry - your planting will be lovely. Good Luck. Leslie P.S. I am the last person to ask about color schemes - I am fundamentally unable to use just one color of anything, anytime or anywhere.

Ceresone, Darn things haven't gotten into my raised beds either but I wouldn't put it past them to tear them down! I made them out of rocks I collected from my creek bed. gldno1, I have not tried trapping them. Don't know if I could be strong enough to be face to face with one! jodonne, Your post gave me quite a chuckle! Bring that knee reaction to NW Arkansas for me! LOL helenh, I'm right in town off Hwy. 71 but am surrounded by a creek and woods. Don't think the shotgun idea would be a good one although I sure feel like using a shotgun! Stupid me thought my only problem would be squirrels! It's amazing what you can learn in three years through experience ... RACOONS, DEER, etc. The recent rains seems to have kept them in their homes as I have not had damage the last couple days during the rainfall. I've got more vinegar to pour onto some old clothing and rags outlining my gardens. I sure hope when the rain washed it out it doesn't soak into my plants! I think I have the rags far away enough from my plants. Will vinegar hurt my soil or plants? Nancy U.

Well, I am obviously the only one in the entire mid-Atlantic annoyed by this. :) That's okay, I will just chronicle here and wait for response. I have not been watering my grass and there is now just swaths of dust interspersed with wilting wild violet leaves. That's right, the things that won't die (wild violets) are showing quite the stress. I watered my flower garden twice this weekend after not watering all week long and just today lugged the super long hose out to water the fence garden. Each plant got watered 3x as it had been a while. Everything is still hanging in there although the Shasta daisies were starting to look a bit thin in the leaves but not yet wilted. The forecast has rain all week. I'm hoping that is true. In fact, I watered in the hopes the the rain, such as it might be, could be absorbed by already damp soil. Now that I think of it, maybe I should have pulled out the sprinkler for the lawn. But, last time it was supposed to rain all week, it rained one day and it was a gentle shower. See my rant above for my take on that. Fingers crossed as I am worried about the trees.

Jennifer, Thanks for the seed report on SESE. About 6 or 8 weeks ago I saw the handwriting on the wall with the coming pandemic and ordered my seeds for both the 2020 and 2021 garden from them. I'm glad I did. And, see there, I am being optimistic and believing I'll survive the pandemic or I wouldn't have ordered seeds for next year. I'm glad you're seeing signs that people are being proactive, and I hate that churches may not be able to have their usual Easter-related services and activities. We have to remember that a pandemic is such an incredibly danger public health risk and daily life, as we know it, is changing a lot. I know that people are not used to quarantining, and I'd rather be out and about than stuck at home all the time, but I truly feel the time to stop going out as much as possible and to stay home as much as possible is now. The new cases in Texas are exploding now, and many of them are community-acquired, meaning that the patient had no known contact with anyone else who has been diagnosed with the disease, did not travel anywhere outside the local area and, thus, obviously became infected from someone in their local community. I expected the numbers to move pretty fast in TX once I saw the initial reports, but they're increasing probably a little more quickly than I was thinking they would. At least we are not in the same condition here yet as a few other states like Washington, California, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Louisiana. Texas was ahead of OK by only a couple of weeks in terms of COVID-19 cases spreading, so we still have a chance to react quickly here and maybe have it not get as widespread as quickly. I am not going to violate anybody's privacy here, but want to say that our family knows some people who are ill, have been tested and are awaiting their test results. It is shocking when you hear news like that, and that is especially true when it is people just like you who have been pretty careful, only going to work and back home again, and just grocery shopping or buying gasoline as needed---no travel, no going to the mall or the gym back when those still were open, no obvious crossing paths with infected people as far as they knew, etc. I think for most people in north central TX near us, the time to stay home and stay away from people probably was about 2 weeks ago, and now that they have community spread, it is almost too late. Their governor is issuing new directives and restrictions almost daily, so maybe they can halt the virus' spread. In OK, if we all start being as proactive as possible now, maybe most of us can avoid the virus as it makes its first official round through our state. OK hasn't had too many cases yet, but I've noticed that as soon as one case pops up in any given county, a second or third one is not far behind. We need to change our mindset now, if we haven't already, to avoid becoming one of those cases. I just hate this, but at least we all can retreat to our gardens and keep ourselves busy at home. I just want to add that Tim and I have one set of rules to keep track of on the south side of the river and another on the north and it is confusing. We'll want to go somewhere, so we'll say to one another "is it safe?" and then we have to figure out if that sort of place is open on the Texas side or the Oklahoma side, or both, or neither. It wears out my brain to the point that I think it is just easier to stay home. I am very concerned about small businesses all across the nation. Here in our county, one guy made a list that since has been forwarded around via various apps and FB, telling us which small businesses are still open, what their operating hours are now, whether you can call ahead and order what you need, etc. We need to remember to patronize our local, small businesses so we don't lose them from our community for good. Nancy, I am angry about all the coverups too. I have been tracking this beast since mid-January and was just beside myself with frustration from early February onward because I thought that was our nation's best chance to stop it in its tracks, and there stood all the politicians implying or even stating it was basically the flu, which it is not, and that it would go away as the weather warmed up, which also is false. The only thing I knew for sure at that point was that the government wasn't going to act in time to protect us, so we had to do everything possible to protect ourselves. I think Tim and Chris thought at first that maybe I was a little too obsessed with it, but then they got on board pretty soon thereafter as they watched it spreading across the world. One of the things I thought was heartbreaking was when Jana told me that she and Chris were going to go ahead and take the girls to the Texas Gulf Coast last week so they could make memories that the girls would have to hang on to "in case anything happened". That told me that Chris and Jana both clearly understand the front-line risks they face in their careers and know that tomorrow or next month or next year is not guaranteed for any of us. How I wish their vacation could have been just a normal vacation with the kids, not marred by fears of what comes next in this pandemic. Both of them expect to be exposed and quarantined, a concern heightened by the lack of proper PPE to keep them safe. No entity---no city, state, county, hospital, fire department, police department, nursing home, etc. has enough PPE stockpiled to deal with this crisis. Since most of it is made in China, and China has been shut down production-wise since early January, there's no quick relief in sight either. I fear for all our first responders and medical personnel. Jen, I agree that modern-day technology offers us options not available in previous times of crisis. I'm glad you're finding a way to make it work for you. Larry, I totally understand how you feel. Tim and I said we wouldn't go out and about when the virus started getting close to home, and then he took a week of vacation and we went somewhere pretty much every day, even knowing we might be exposing ourselves to infection. Sometimes being bad is fun, and I'm glad we were able to eat at a couple of our favorite restaurants in Texas before the governor shut them down at mid-week last week. We do carry wipes with us everywhere, and have hand sanitizer in our vehicle and I carry a mini-bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse. I hope we've done enough to stay safe. We didn't hear a single cough anywhere for days, and then noticed a lot more coughing in public yesterday, so I take that as a warning sign. After a quick trip to the feed store and to Lowe's today, we are officially staying home. Well, except Tim has to go to work each day and that is just unavoidable, but I'll be cleaning and disinfecting everything he touches when he comes in from work. I suppose he won't let me stand at the back door and spray him down with Lysol before he enters the house, will he? I think Tim should pack a suitcase to carry in the car just like he does before a forecasted snowstorm and should be prepared to hunker down and stay in Texas if anyone issues a stop-movement type edict while he is a work, particularly if such an edict prohibits crossing state lines. I don't know if such an edict is coming on either a statewide or national level, but if it is, he'd be in better shape if he has a suitcase full of clothing,medication and toiletries. Remember the good old days when all we had to worry about with the garden was just weather and pests? Dawn