Bulbs, like most plants, look best in clusters. When mixing varieties of bulbs on their own, good effects can be achieved by combining early and late varieties, tall and short growers and hues that blend well to your eye. Around trees and shrubs, use your imagination as a guide to create planes, islands and shadows that complement the lines of the basic planting, while also introducing attractive blends of color. Perhaps the most common and thoroughly delightful example of this technique is a mat of blue Grape Hyacinths to balance the spreading branches of yellow Forsythia. Yellow Daffodils under fruit trees or white Daffodils under Dogwoods are also effective combinations.
Daffodils are lovely, long-lived, and inexpensive.
Best of all, deer will not touch them.