It wasn’t truly an emergency but I sure was glad Bill showed up with the auger and drill.  The last few years we have been planting bulbs and then more bulbs, every year it’s been thousands of bulbs and I am not exaggerating.  I’ll set the stage, Picture a driveway a long black ribbon that threads it’s way through a forest of green, pristine drifts of white snow or blazing orange leaves depending on the season.  Not a normal driveway but rather one quarter mile of driveway.   Since we moved here I have pictured it filled in the spring with tulips gently nodding their heads in approval of warmth returning.

Reality is we live on a chunk of limestone and I think every rock in the state was brought here.  All of that rock is covered only by the thin layer of decaying leaves that drop every fall.  Digging in it is horrible.  Also reality is that everything that lives in the woods LOVES to munch on tulip bulbs or any tulips that manage to break ground and show their faces.  Also, also reality, tulip bulbs are not meant to flower more than one year at least many of them are a one and done at least in our zone.

Okay rewind that mental picture to daffodils nodding their heads in approval of spring, ahh that’s better.  Daffodils are less tasty but they still are not all meant to last more than one year.

Finding out that last part out blew my mind.  I had always assumed that bulbs were bulbs and they lasted forever unless they were eaten, dug up, or rotted.  We started researching, looking for bulb that would be hardy in our zone and that stand a higher chance of returning each year.  We have spent almost 2 decades buying bulbs and planting only to have a lovely spring, once, and then never again.  If we were really going to commit to this we wanted better results.  We landed on the Holland Bulb Farms website, they had what we were looking for and their prices are good.  Especially if you catch a sale.

SKU 82001 Wholesale Mixed Daffodils – Deer resistant, good cut flowers, can be forced indoors, naturalizing, perennializing.  Genus species Narcissus, hardy zones 3 – 8, full sun – part shade, mid spring, fall planting, 12″ – 18″ tall.

SKU 88089 BULK Mixed Perennial Tulips – Good cut flowers, indoor forcing, perennializing, fall planting, blooms all spring, 16″ -24″ tall, hardy zone 3 – 8, full sun – partial shade, does not say they will last forever just that yea they can come back and they have at least two springs.  Mix might include : Orange Lion, Oxford Darwin Hybrid, Menton Single Late, Queen of Night Single Late, Golden Apeldoorn Darwin Hybrid, Gander’s Rhapsody Triumph, Apeldoorn’s Elite Darwin Hybrid, and Apricot Impression Darwin Hybrid Tulips.

Because of the tulip munching critters we planted all 500 bulbs in an oasis of dirt between the driveway and the cobbles in front of the house.  They were planted the fall of 2024 and came up the spring of 2025 and again in 2026.   The fall of 2025 we planted a new kind of tulip but inside of raised garden beds, still trying to protect them from things that eat bulbs.  These came up in all but one of the beds the spring of 2026.  Which meant we planted another 1k in new beds the fall of 2026.  Fingers crossed.

88094 BULK Seadov Tulips good as cut flowers, Genus Tulipa, hardy zones 3 – 8, full sun – partial shade, mid spring, 10″ – 12″ tall (they are short), fall planting.  Sad to say I think we messed up.  These probably won’t last more than a year or maybe several and each year we can expect to see less and less of them.  I don’t know how we managed to mess this up but there it is.

Here is what they looked like planted in the raised beds lining the driveway by the garden.  We put them in all the grape beds and across from that in the beds between the pear trees. These beds are 2′ x 4′ and we put 100 bulbs in each bed.

First year, one tub did nothing just a few scraggly leaves but no flowers.  When you are looking for a true perennializing tulip look for something in the Darwin, Darwin Hybrid or Species Tulip.

Species Tulip – Species tulips are among the oldest tulip bulb varieties and cultivars available for fall planting. Species tulips fall into the categories of Kaufmanniana, Fosteriana, Greigii and other miscellaneous tulip species. All species tulips are known to be reliable perennial. When given the proper conditions, full sun, cool temperatures, dry soil in summer and allowing the leaves to yellow after blooming–these bulbs will return for several season. Most of the tulip varieties in this collection will bloom very early in the season.

While all the varieties in this collection, fall into the species tulips classification, they all are a little different from each other. The Kaufmanniana Tulips (also known as Water Lily Tulips) are among the earliest to flower, stand up well to poor weather, and have striped foliage. Fosteriana Tulips produce some of the largest blooms, when fully open the flowers can reach up to 12″ across. Greigii tulips have striped and or/ mottled foliage, their blooms are also large often 6″ or larger in diameter. Botanical Tulips are low to the ground, typically not much taller than 6″, have smaller 2-3″ diameter blooms, are perfect for naturalizing and deer resistant.

Darwin Tulips – There are a LOT of Darwin Hybrid  & Darwin Tulips to choose from and while all tulips can behave like perennials most act more like diva annuals.  It really isn’t your fault it really is them.  Even the ones that say they act more like perennial need perfect worlds to live in which makes me sad but there it is.  They tend to be tall 24″ so you need to plant them deep.  They have large, vibrant flowers and can bloom for several years.  The Darwin Hybrid is a cross between the Darwin and the Cottage, breed in England in the early 1800’s.  The Darwin is native to the Netherlands named after Charles Darwin.

I do think I know how we messed up,  Bill choose these because he could get 1k of them and they matched the color of tulip we choose for our wedding flower.  Incredibly sweet and if a guy is going to buy you 1k of the flowers you held on your wedding day, that guy is a keeper.

The tulips ship in these nice sturdy, black plastic milk crate type containers which is really nice because we save them for garden harvesting.  The daffodils ship in large, orange, mesh bags which are also nice because we save those for things like onions and potato harvest storage.

Okay on to the point of the post, finally.  Enter the auger, I first saw one of these used on a Youtube video.  This woman pulled out this huge auger that went in her drill and proceeded to dig a hole in seconds.  Okay you have my attention.  I showed this magic to Bill who proceeded to find them and bought them for me.

Amazon, Auger Drill Bit for Planting 3 Pack with Extension – 3/8” Hex Drive Drill

I love these things.  They make digging in our rocky soil so much easier.  I prefer to use them without the extension.  The extension sounded amazing, you mean I don’t have to bend down so far?  My back will thank you.  Reality is when I use the extension inevitably I end up smashing the drill into my leg or it catches and my wrist tries to wrench itself off my arm.  It gets away from me so fast, and with so much force.  Even without the extension it can get away from me if it snags on a rock or something wraps around it like a vine, roots or long grass.   I’ve found if I get it caught, rocks,  I can reverse out pretty easy and then remove any material wrapped on the shaft.  I’ve also found that if I can’t just go straight down I can tilt it and work at it that way.

This year I could not find it when I was ready to plant bulbs.  I asked Bill if he remembered where it was and he said, “I think it’s in the shop, by the door, in a plastic tote, in that first cabinet by the miter saw.”  I said, “No, I already looked in that and it’s not there.  It’s okay I’ll just use a shovel.”

I head down the driveway with my shovel and my second favorite planting tool, a short handled, medieval looking hoe thing.  I first saw something like it watching Self Sufficient Me videos and thought I like that!  I do not know what this thing is called.  I do not remember where I got it.  Bill found this one on Amazon and you can view it here.

Optimistically I attempted to stick the shovel into the dirt alongside the driveway.  The vibration of metal hitting rock rattled my teeth.  Undeterred I tried inserting the shovel at an angle and again meet mother earth scale resistance.  Okay, let’s try the tiny pick axe thingie and it did do better.  Once I had the ground a little softened I could get the shovel in and dig a small hole.  Then more picking at it, more shoveling, more picking and in less than 7 hours I had three holes dug!

As I was picking away at hole number three I catch my husband doing what could only be described as a happy skip down the driveway towards me.  He had found the auger.  I’m like, “YOU FOUND IT!  Where was it?”  Trying to suppress his giggle of joy he managed to choke out, “It was in the shop, in that tote, in the cabinet by the door.”  I’m now staring at him incredulously, more than a little bit suspicious that he is pulling my leg.  I manage to choke out, ” BUT I LOOKED THERE! There were zip ties, that tool for attaching grapes to the wire but no auger.”  He is now beside himself, absolutely giddy with joy, I don’t think I have ever seen him so happy.  Nodding his head with vigor he says, “Yes, yes it was UNDER the zip ties!”  Twirl, skip, ta da.

You see in our house it does not work like this.  He looks and I find.  The fact that he KNEW where the tool was, told me, I looked and didn’t see it but he did, is just not a thing that happens here.  Honestly I was just super happy to see that auger show up and it made me laugh to see how ridiculously happy he was to have finally turned the tables.  In maybe 5 minutes I had another 30 holes dug.  That is an exaggeration but it’s not far off.

Bill puts the handle on the drill for me so that I have more control over it even when it catches.  That handle also gives me better leverage when I’m digging.  When I get tired I switch to planting bulbs.  Then go back to digging holes.  That short handled hoe, pick axe thing is really handy.  Even though I have a hole it still needs to be cleared.  That tool can pull rocks out, pull out softened dirt and make the hole better for planting the bulbs.  Once they are in I use the flat edge of the tool to push the dirt back over them and then the top to tamp that dirt down.  If I need to I can use the pick to pull in more dirt from around the hole.  The auger and this hand tool make my back and shoulder hurt because it’s work, no doubt, but my hands feel better.  Having to pull out rocks by hand, digging them out with a shovel, or using a hand trowel hurt.

Typically I aim for about 50 holes per day and it takes me 4 days to get all 1k bulbs planted.  Yesterday Bill came out after work and together we planted 500 bulbs!  One more box to go so I better get to it.  This year it took only 3 days because Bill helped me every night after work.  We made it all the way up one side of the driveway almost to the shop!