If your bulbs are not in the refrigerator(one without fresh fruit)put them there now. You will need 6 weeks minimum chilling before planting. If they are already chilled plant them now. They will dry out before next year and be worthless. Al

gardengal, it really depends on your climate. If you got dug up every year & chucked in a freezer you might feel a bit under the weather yourself ;-) As for hybrids being weak.. most garden tulips are hybrids, & of 20-odd tulip varieties on my block I'm the ONLY one with species tulips. No one here digs up their tulips. Across the road there's a clump of hybrid tulips that have been there at least 40 years in complete neglect, had a hedge planted on top of them, had the hedge removed, and they are there every year, faithfully. I fought a garden hybrid for 10 years, I'd miss one bulblet & the next year it would be back. Tulips seem to love this climate, & that's probably the key here. Some hybrids may be weaker, absolutely, but there's something called hybrid vigor, too. Think of mules. I do every time I try to move one of these stubborn beggers. :-)

You don't necessarily have to move them. It depends on what kind of tulips you got. If you got Emperors, Darwins or Triumphs and especially species tulips, they could come back happily next year and bloom again so just leave them in place. If they're one of the fancy hybrids, chances are they wouldn't flower again (although you might get a second year), so you might just as well dig them up and throw them in the compost when they're finished blooming. If you want to keep them, but absolutely want them out of the bed because you can't live with the leaves, you can use the rather labour-intensive method of heeling in, which involves carefully digging up the bulbs without damaging leaves or bulbs and settling them into a shallow trench in an out-of-the-way place (lining it with chicken wire will make it easier to lift them later), and letting them complete their life cycle there. Once the leaves have completely dried, dig up the bulbs, clean and dry them, and store them in a cool, dry place for planting in the fall. If you decide to leave them in place, don't cut the leaves back until they've lost all of their green colour. The leaves are feeding the bulbs for next year's flowers. Hope this helps some. Janet's Garden Blog

I just dig and replant the same day. You should have fed them in the spring as they were emerging and again after blooming....but adding a bit of bone meal in the fall would be fine. Linda C