My mom and I went to Ritchie's to check out their bulbs before making a catalogue order. Holy crap. Rows upon rows upon shelves upon shelves stocked with every tulip imagineable and loads of other goodies besides. Prices were much better than the catalogues to boot, and no shipping charges to pay. We both went a little crazy.

The spoils:

* a sack of 50 assorted single tulips for the backyard
* for the front yard, assorted black (well, dark purple really) white and pink single and double tulips, including the Black Hero tulips of awesomeness from last year
* 60 crocuses to scatter around everywhere, since flowers at the beginning of April will make me smile even if they're in dirt instead of grass
* assorted alliums - more drumstick, more blue, more purple sensation, an interesting new white one called "graceful", and atropurpureum, since it has a different shape
* eremurus himalaicus and robustus, which are the real monsters of their kind (can get to be 6' tall) - a third of the catalogue price, but probably not the same quality, so we'll see how they do
* a pot of lamb's ears for the front yard
* a couple 4" pots of dark red sweet william, because it was half price

Now all I have to order in are the clematises (clemati?) I've had my eye on, since nobody else seems to carry them, to the tune of an additional $40. Sweeeeeeeet.