It's easy to figure out which is the top of a tulip or daffodil bulb: the pointy end. That's where the flower sprouts; the bottom is the basal plate, where the roots come out.

But sometimes it's hard to tell which end is up with smaller bulbs. If you really can't tell, experts recommend planting the bulb on its side and it will right itself as roots begin to grow into the soil.

The real planting adventure begins with weird-looking blobs, scaly thingamabobs, tentacled doohickeys and fleshy doodads we call roots, tubers, corms, rhizomes and bulbs.

If you saw an eremurus tuber (Foxtail lily) lying around before planting, you'd probably stomp it, thinking it was an escapee from one of those horror flicks about giant insects invading Earth.

Ugly as they are, these structures create some of the most beautiful flowers imaginable. Bulbs have built-in storage for food and moisture, plump with tissues that store starches, sugars and moisture.

Most bulbs will rot if overwatered; water bulbs immediately after planting and until roots are established. Generally, bulbs can handle drier conditions.

Eremurus has many fat, brittle tubers radiating outward from a center crown like a many-legged spider. But this otherworldly tuber grows into a 4- to 5-feet-tall plant with beautiful bushy plumes. Winter-hardy in the ground only to Zone 6, I've tried a few in containers and had decent luck. You can plant them in the garden, but treat them like annuals. They don't like being moved so lifting in fall is out.

Pineapple lilies (Eucomus) are exotics that do well in pots. Budded flower stalks resemble pineapples. Bulbs resemble lily bulbs except less fleshy with drier scales. Use a rich, sandy soil mix; plant with the bulb top just below the surface. Keep moist and fertilize regularly. Grow in full or filtered sun. Store pots indoors at 55 to 68 F. Let pots dry out.

Lilies are breathtakingly beautiful. Fat, thickly scaled bulbs can be planted in spring or fall because the bulbs are never dormant. I prefer fall because I want to see the stalks of existing lilies when I'm digging so I don't damage them. Plant 6 inches deep, spreading stringy roots in the hole; backfill.

Tuberous begonia tubers are hairy, dried-up things that produce velvet flowers.