Dear all, I find this a most interesting topic as I am faced with the problem every day. Under our packing tables we have the choice of nets, paperbags, plastic bags, and filling (or protection) material; saw dust, woodchippings, peat, potting soil, sphagnum, polystyrene. I try to be systematic, in general we have the following rules: Dry dormant bulbs: paper bags or nets, no filling material) Freshly lifted bulbs with fleshy roots (amaryllidacea), cyclamen, alstroemeria, agapanthus: thin plastic bag in paperbag filled with slightly humid peat or sphagnum Delicate tubers etc (Glorisosa, Bletilla, Dahlia) paperbag with dry woodchippings The use of plastic bags must be controlled carefully; as a period too long or bulbs too humid may lead to rotting. An excellent example of packing were the Crinums sent to us by Tony Avent. The bulbs with fresh roots were wrapped in sphagnum and damp newspaper. Roots remained intact and are still there three months after planting. (In many cases the fleshy roots disappear during the months after planting) The choice depends invariably on the genus, time of lifting prior to shipping, length of shipping period. Many times it is intuition which guides. Kind greetings Lauw de Jager, France http://www.bulbargence.com/ I find that almost invariably where I err in the storage of bulbs is in keeping them too moist. Woodland corydalis, for example -- which usually arrive from overseas packed in a moistened medium -- actually do better for me packed in a dry medium in plastic bags, which keeps them plump but discourages rooting. The same with most frits and erythroniums. On the other hand, as long as green tissue is not an issue, most bare-root geophytes will keep quite well even if moist and in root. I have separated masses of erythroniums that have formed veritable rootballs within their plastic packing, all the while fearing that I was doing near-lethal harm. But they just shrugged it off