Further bulbacious beauts

Do you suffer from acute bulbitis? It strikes without warning. You go into a nursery, ostensibly to pick up a dozen more snowdrops or crocus or tulips of a specific colour...and suddenly you find yourself with another couple of hundred bulbs of various species, colours and sizes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it...even if it took me going to two garden centres to relieve the symptoms of bulbitis yesterday.


What followed me home this time?
Tulips, of course: Apeldoorn Elite; (bicolour Darwin, red-orange flushed with gold, sometimes showing hints of fuchsia)
Tulip 'Curley Sue' a deep purple fringed type
Jackpot, deep purple with white edging
Carousel (a delightful fringed beauty with rosey 'flames' on a creamy white flower)
Marilyn (lily flowered, similar white and rose colour scheme) Marilyn was my former mother-in-law's name, in whose memory I planted a butterfly garden, which unfurls with a procession of flowers and shrubs all season. It starts out with some daffs and brightly coloured tulips, (last year including Toronto, Apeldoorn Elite and a couple of others), then aprocession of perennials and flowering shrubs keep things going. It seemed like the right way to remember a very remarkable woman.

Species tulips, the small but marvelous showoffs: Tulip saxatilis a dainty beauty in soft pink
Tulip humilis violacea (don't you love its black heart?)

Other bulbs:
Crocus Advance (purple and gold)
crocus, mixed purples and whites for naturalizing)

Muscari Blue Spike: This double-flowered grape hyacinth is so cool, with almost-fringed flowers and of course that wonderful sweet scent. So I needed more of them.


Alliums:
A. ostrowski (small, deep rose, late)
A.sphaerocephalum (deep purple, medium height, late)
Al. moly luteum (small yellow fireworks, really cool)

Itis reticulata (blue)
Iris danfordiae (yellow)
The small early-flowering irises delight me; they're about the second bulb out of the gate in the spring, barely having their foliage above the ground before bursting into bloom with purple, blue or yellow flowers about three inches across. Wonderful, and they multiply gradually; but I prefer to add a few new ones every couple of years just to ensure their delightful presence.


More snowdrops, Fritillaria meleagris, and oh yes, a couple dozen Leucojums I stumbled across. What I haven't picked up any of this year is daffodils and narcissus. Not that I don't love them--we do--but we have lots, and they are all naturalizing very nicely around the yard. What I'd like to know from others, however, is what they think of the 'pink' daffs, those cultivars with pink trumpets or coronas. Are they pink for you, and are they as reliable about naturalizing? I had a few once, years ago, and they were more salmon-orange than pink. They might still be around (I can't remember!) but I'd like to try again if they really ARE showing pink. So what has your experience been with them?