Tulips, daffodils and irises, oh my!

I spent an hour looking through the Colorblends and Van Engelen spring catalogs tonight in an attempt to narrow down my bulb choices. I've had both catalogs in the house for at least two months, which I would pick up and look at before falling asleep, dog-earring the pages with the flowers that looked the prettiest. I know I am running out of time to order (holy cow, it's now October?) and luckily the bulbs I want to order are still in stock.

This years preliminary list has been narrowed down to the following categories:

To line the new garden path out front:

Big Ups Tulips

Tete a Tete Daffodils

Iris Reticulata, Harmony

Graceful Beauty Alliums

For the back garden:

Hyacinthoides non-scripta

Possibly along the driveway:

Snowdrops

Beautiful, but not sure where I could plant them:

Avalon and Camelot Daffodils

Sweet Love Daffodil (I already have some of these and love them.)

From a first glance, that doesn't look too bad. Except I'm considering quantities in the 100s to make the impact that much stronger. I don't want a few bulbs here and there (and I already have a good amount of daffodils that return each year, not so much with the tulips). I want someone to drive by my house and slow down their car to see the flowers. Which is why I'm looking at wholesale catalogs so I can get more for my money.

A very quick sketch of the front garden as I tried to fit
in future bulbs.

But I honestly do have to trim down the list. I've been postponing planting more perennials out front until I get my spring bulbs in the ground. (The only exception were the daylilies that arrived in the mail from Ryder Country Daylilies, which I ordered online via Facebook, shown in the photo below.) We are also experiencing above average temperatures in Connecticut this week. (Today the bank thermometer read 86 degrees F!)