Bulbs: What to do with unplanted bulbs?, 0 by LeawoodGardener

LeawoodGardener wrote:
I received a surprise today - a friend, whose brother is a landscaper, called to ask if she could stop by with a 'gift'. I never turn down gifts, so I invited her for coffee. She brought me a box of tulips her brother had left over from his landscape jobs last fall! There are five different varieties, all nice big bulbs (maybe 200 in all), but I don't know what to do with them!

For starters, It's MARCH 8TH! These bulbs should have been in the ground for 8-10 weeks by now, cooling their heels and sprouting roots! Also, we have several inches of snow on the ground at the moment, plus, almost every square inch of my garden is already planted with bulbs and perennials - if I could find a spot to plant them, when the snow melts, the ground would be totally mud (not my favorite planting conditions)!

My friend assured me her brother had stored these bulbs on an unheated porch since last fall, so maybe they qualify as 'chilled bulbs', but I still need to figure out where to plant them. I think I'm going to buy some bags of potting soil and plant them in large pots to sit around on the patio, as an experiment. I figure if they fail, I haven't lost anything.

While we're sure to have cold days yet this year (spring is still two weeks away), I often place the pots of forced bulbs I grow in the urns around my yard about this time each year (http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1050342/), so I doubt the cold air above ground will affect the bulbs. The only question is, "Will they bloom?"

Stay tuned. I'll post my results.