Advice on moving a bulb collection
Jane McGary (Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:44:37 PST)

Fred wrote,

Depending on what kinds of bulbs these are, it is important to pack
them so that they don't become too dry or, conversely, stay so moist
that they mold and rot. Clean them carefully before packing them and
consider dusting with sulfur or some other product. They should
probably be kept in the dark, either in opaque bags or within
cardboard boxes. If you have some that are in root growth, you can
put them in plastic bags with a little BARELY moist vermiculite, and
I would leave the top of the bag open a little. If you're shipping
them in cardboard boxes, cushion the bottom of the box with crumpled
newspaper or something similar so the bulbs on the bottom don't get smashed.

When I moved a year and a half ago, I unpotted more than 1500
containers of bulbs and put each kind in a brown paper bag (you can
buy small bags of this kind at Costco for very little) with its
labels. I had them stored in a basement in summer for about six
weeks, where the air was rather dry and temperature moderate. It was
a tremendous job getting them all into the raised beds in the new
bulb house, but very few of them showed any damage. I did lose some
colchicums dug from the garden during an unusually wet summer, though
-- they molded in storage even though I had dried them in flats for a
week or so..

Good luck!
Jane McGary