Mary Sue, Only 5 bulbs huh? How about 5 genera? Under these constraints, I would have to say iris, peonies, Muscari, Tulip, and Chionodoxa. Ok, I can't forget one other, lilies. (These are all notes form my aunt's home in Ohio, I will go into So Cal bulbs seperately below) Ok, under these genera I can be a little more specific, right? LOL Iris, well, how do I start? I buy every single pallida I can find, both color forms. THey are nice accents all summer long. The spring fragance they have when planted in mass is quite noticeable. I have a large collection of Japanese, Siberian, German (bearded), dwarf, Luoisiana, and a many misc. other forms such as Spuria, Dutch, English, bucharica, and a reticulata. The Japanese and Siberians are the majority of the summer color. For the rest of the year, I consider then to be texture plants. I have neverseen these in bloom as I am not in Ohio during their bloom time. The German (bearded) forms are the ones that I do get to see every year as they are blooming in May when I am home. Lovely 3 to 4' tall spikes in mostly lavenders and blues. I only wishg these would be more of a foliage piece for the rest of the growing year. Peonies: what is there to say? A garden is not complete without huge mounds of peonies. Tree peonies are a real treat. If anyone out there doesn't have one by now, GET ONE! The flowers, once they mature in 3-5 years, can get tup to 12" across each. Now, who does nto want a trouble free plant in their garden with dinnerplate size flowers???? The cost in the fall is greatly reduced at most garden centers because they do not want to carry them over the winter. They usually have a name or color on the stem at the base somewhere. I just go through and pick out ones I don't have. I think I have over 40 peonies (of differnt kinds) planted all over the yard. Muscari, here I am rather simple. I have only one - armenicaum. I know it is a weed but the color mass display cannot be outdone by ANY bulb that I know of. Tulips. Hum. These are more of an annual but they can creat such gorgeous displays every year. When I get to it, I will post a picture to the wiki of what I planted this year. It is a mass along the front walkway of 500 Tulip 'Maureen' and 400 Hyacinthus 'Woodstock'. It should be a showstopper and I hope I get home in time to see it (I can never get any good pictures out of my family). In the past I have planted masses of tulips everywhere with only a few returning each year. Mostly it is becasue they are sliced up when I plant other things or I pull them out because I want something else there. Chionodoxa. The first sight of spring and such a lovely color. They reseed themselves around pleasntly and take no care at all. Lilies. Who can live without lilies? If this person exists, they would be a very strange person to get to know. I have so many lilies that I can begin to list them here and I am always buying more. I have a weakness for Stargazers and Casablancas. They are old standbys that work everywhere. I am starting to get a wider selection but I am still buying 50-200 stargazers each year. I am trying to concentrate on getting more species. I really want a large area full of formossanum and candida. One lovely combination that I mentioned in my container articles is 'Casa', 'Stargazer', and Pentemon 'Husker Red' with red Paeonia 'Karl Rosenfeldt', Tulipa 'Carnivale', and Hosta 'Patriot'. The reds, pinks, and whites provide color all summer long with foliage and flowers. This fall I went through and did a revamping of the garden. I removed a large area of Louisiana iris, removed huge patches of Calagrostis 'Overdam' and several large clumps of Panicum cvs. To me grasses are a very important part of the garden. Unfortunately in Ohio, grass has become something to put one clump by the mailbox. The reason grass is so important is that mot bulbs that grow in full sun do so in meadows that over overgrown during the summer by grass that provides cover. Since removing things, I have more room for other things to go. I wil incorporate more salvias and other diehard perennials but I want to increase the amount of misc. bulbs that are there. Using perennials as cover is difficult for me since I like to use such large groups of bulbs together. I prefer to simply remove most bulbs and replant the following autumn with more. There are areas the have smaller groups (or survivors) in amungst the perennials. The perennials that are used most often here are daylilies (can never have enough of these either - I just planted out another 12 varieties this spring and 75 plants of 2 varieties this fall), hosta, pestemon, asters, verbenas (planted every spring), and plenty of weeds <grin>. I am working on planting more native perennials over the next few years. High Country Gardens and Prairie Nursery Wildflowers has a great selection of drought tolerant natives that are quite hardy. Penstemons, Soidago (goldenrods), and others are a few that I am concentrating on since they come up and cover after my sring bulbs are done and give color from summer all the way past most frosts. An unusual combo that I will be trying this next year is Gloriosa lilies, Penstemon utahensis, Agastache rupestris, Zauschnera 'Orange Carpet', and some coleus varieties. Ok, now in CA. Well, as many of you already know, the possibilities are endless. My choices are Watsonia, Ipheion, Canna, Clivia, and Hippeastrum species. They can all be interplanted with salvias, lavender, rosemary, grasses, daylilies, fuschias, etc. Well, enough of my babbling. I have a lot more favorite bulbs and combinations but I don't want to give away all my secrets <grin> or there would be no reason for people to hire me. ===== John Ingram in L.A., CA. 310.709.1613 jjingram@adelphia.net Floralartistry2000@yahoo.com http://www.geocities.com/floralartistry2000/