buying online - recommendations?
Mandicore
Posts: 13
I'm in need of a barrelful of bulbs! My beds are empty-looking and I'd like to fill them with something that will come up year after year reliably, and be colourful. I'm forced online (see below) and can't choose between the various retailers or find the kind of "starter pack" that I'm looking for.
Background: I have difficulty keeping up with any gardening at all because my health comes and goes. (Need an easy-care garden really, but in the meantime I need to get this one in shape.) Last week an old friend came to stay and tidied up my front garden: swept the dead bits from the paving, and pulled out the dead brown bits which had kept everything else hidden. With planting my problem is usually making the holes(!) but my idea now is to mulch, including bulbs in every handful.
I have as many daffs, narcissi, crocus etc as I can stand; and snowdrops and celandine invade anyway, which I'm happy about. But I want to fill all the bare places which had weeds, and will have weeds again. When the weeds are native wildflowers the same as in the verges, that's fine, but mostly it's grass that takes over and hides everything else.
My question is: I have to buy online because I can never choose in garden centres, when I do occasionally make it to one. I thought I'd pick up a big bag or three of mixed bulbs but I haven't seen that kind of thing, only packs of maybe 3 of one kind, for £5. I need 100 or 200 though.
My budget is approximately... £0! 
and other than that, obviously I want somewhere that packs the bulbs safely and tends to send things that will grow well. Anyone got any favourite places?
Posts
Have a look on the offers page and see if there's anything that takes your fancy
Damn iPad won't let me put a link - go up the top on the dark green bar, where it says "home", "what to do now" etc and fourth from the right is "offers"
I've used fentongallon for bulbs, you can get massive bags but I think they do mostly daffs
@ Fruitcake - good idea sometimes, but at the moment all the offers are plug plants. A plug takes a lot more planting than a bulb, and in quantity I wouldn't be able to get them in. I've wasted enough over the last few years to know better. Thanks though.
@ Rhod C, they do look good but yes, it's all daffodils by the look of it.
Someone on another thread recommended Eurobulbs
https://eurobulbs.co.uk
Sorry my suggestion wasn't for you Mandicore, but it might be useful for someone else reading
Thanks Golarne, but... as far as I can see they only do plug plants again. From the name you'd think bulbs!
I'm really not trying to be awkward.
Sorry, I hadn't read your post carefully enough! Isn't it unlikely that you'll get spring flowering bulbs now, unless they are 'in the green'? Mind you, I spotted sacks of daffodil bulbs cheap at a local garden centre recently.
"Sorry my suggestion wasn't for you Mandicore, but it might be useful for someone else reading
"
- Oh yes, that's the point of forums!
(Can't get the quote function functioning.)
@Golarne - I didn't know it was too late! I've never done the spring planting routine, always intended to go for hardy perennials everywhere, so I haven't got much idea which month is which. Oh no... I'm meaning bulbs that CAN be planted now, d'oh. I'm reading too quickly too!
I don't care, frankly, as long as they're mixed, colourful, easy-care once they're in, and not all daffodils (and not too many tall types as we get strong winds all year). If I'm lucky I'll find a mixed bag as I've seen in the past. I did get to a garden centre this week, though, and they only had the smaller bags of specific flowers, which work out £2-ish per bulb.
@ Welshonion: Peter Nyssen is the best match so far (for my needs)... I like the way they price per bulb, too. This could be the answer!
I got lucky in the end, got to a town a bit further than my usual "visiting range" if you know what I mean, and someone pointed me at Wilko. 60 bulbs, five kinds of plant, for £5.
They look in reasonable condition though I haven't had a chance to put them in as it's been windy n wet ever since.
My only other option was eBay, which if you're selective and reasonably cautious is ok - but some of the plants advertised as hardy were NOT hardy when I googled their care, so I hadn't been able to decide. The more specialist retailers online had all run out of their cheap "bargain bags".
Thanks everyone for your advice!