Just an anecdotal aside. A few years ago I bought some bulbs of T. clusiana and a named yellow/red cultivar and got them late in the season. At that point I had just had surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon so wasn't particularly mobile and I put them on one side. I rediscovered them in the garage almost exactly one year later and planted them, just for the heck of it. The bulbs were terribly shrunken, within normal looking tunics. The following spring the majority of both forms came up, a few flowered, then this year each was a lovely fully flowered clump. Best, J. John T Lonsdale PhD 407 Edgewood Drive, Exton, Pennsylvania 19341, USA Home: 610 594 9232 Cell: 484 678 9856 Fax: 315 571 9232 Visit "Edgewood" - The Lonsdale Garden at http://www.edgewoodgardens.net/ USDA Zone 6b > > The small bulbs are often dead late in the season the humidity in the > shops is to low and the bulbs dry out soon especially bulbs like the > Tulipa clusiana and Tulipa batalinii they have a fantastic skin but you > can't see what is under it >