I have already dug my tulips as of the last week in May, after flowering but with no yellowing on the leaves at all. I left all the foliage attached which has now dried off and I am getting a good cure and have a three or four-fold increase in blooming size bulbs and a pile of dinks on top of it. My favorite are red Apeldoorns. These will keep nicely well into the fall; so do not worry about storing cured tulips - or daffodils - over the summer. As long as they stay dry you can store them in a corner of the garage just fine. (The Dutch do it yearly by the billions of bulbs...) This is a common way of handling tulips generally getting a two season bed by digging the tulip bulbs, curing them to store out of the ground over the summer after their bloom is done and replanting some other summer flowering plant, such as cannas, which are themselves dug up for winter storage and summer stored dormant tulips are replanted after frost in the fall for the next spring. Quite naturally the beds get re-fertilized and conditioned with every replant and generally also mulched. Some cut flower growers dig their tulips yearly and replant them in freshly worked soil in the fall, very often having surplus bulbs in the process, and a full summer bed for other plantings. I replant my tulips every year, actually about the same time as I put in my fall garlic. What that does is allow me to rework and refeed the beds. Used up nutrients is the most usual reason tulips decline or "run out". They quite naturally get redivided then too, which will also increase flower size and quality. I see no reason not to use a similar technique on daffodils. I use the old window screens in my front screen porch for curing all my bulbs, including garlic and onions, as well as tulips. Works well for potatoes, too. For daffodils as opposed to garlic and tulips an early planting for as long a fall rooting period as possible gives the best results. If your gifted daffodils are cured they also should hold until time to plant them later or as you wish. Dig, cure and store is my advice for your bulbs. Also spraying with something like Roundup is about the only sure way to reduce quack and creeping jenny, both of which are really hard-assed, hardy perennial weeds with extensive root systems. Creeping Jenny has documented roots growing as deep as 20', and every little bit of either will grow a new patch. Personally I would suggest scorched earth until fall for best eradication, BEFORE you till for the first time. Just get your tulips out before you spray anything. There is no safely organic or PC correct way I know to control either of these two weeds. BTW neither is native to North America, showing what accidental or indiscriminate spread of exotic species can do. No mulch at all will prevent quack and creeping jenny, unless it smothers everything, and even then the outcome is questionable, not that a mulch as part of the finished bed is not a good thing, but established plants of fully aggressive perennials like these two will come right through nearly all of them. It will pay you to kill as many of the established weeds as possible, since mulch later is much more effective on the new seedlings that are sure to follow.

Wow! That sounds like a rough trip, and a very HOT time of the year to move it. Any chance of sending it out early (like now!)? If it were me, and depending on the size, I would put the whole thing in a huge insulated box and overnight it to its new home. Take most of the soil off the roots and put that moisture-retentive gel on them and seal the root ball tightly in plastic. Wrap the branches carefully in foam and tape down - just enough to keep them from flopping about. Then suspend the tree well in the center of the box and fill with "peanuts". I would use DHL or someone who is an expert at shipping larger sizes and things that need special handling. Then, when it got to CA, I would repot it the minute it arrived and water the stink out of it for the rest of the summer! I know how you feel about your tree. Its become part of the family! I would take mine too, although I would have to dig it up out of the garden. In fact, if I ever do have to move (and I hope not), I'm afraid I would have to hire some commercial nursery people to dig up all my Japanese Maples so I could take them with me. How could I leave them behind, at the risk that the new owner would not take care of them!? It would be like leaving your dog behind! Good luck, and let us know how you do it! :-) K4

Dutchman's Breeches? Wow. I would have loved to see it! I planted a few years ago, but they did not grow. I am wondering about one of my Bleeding Heart, though. Where IS IT? Should I start to worry? The other one is already 2-3" tall, but there's no sign of the other. Wonder if it's hidden under all the mulch that I piled up on the bed last year. I understand your excitement. I have been out everyday until dark to check what's coming up. When I see the red shoots of Peonies all I can think of is: wouldn't it be nice if I can get some wild primroses to plant on top of the peony or right next to it? I saw a picture of this combination in a Christopher Lloyd's book and have been looking for wild primroses ever since. I have been moving several bulbs including Daffodils. Yeah. I second dirt's suggestion. I move mine when I feel like it and when I still have time. Later on they'll be too tall and flop after transplant. I'll be too busy to move existing stuffs anyway. Happy spring time. I love to watch those tiny shoots unfurl too. It's a joy to watch them pop up where nothing was there a day or two ago. :-)

Heh.. I wish you luck and I know that you will find a way.. I had a similar experience when I was moving from Toronto to Vancouver with my animals. I had 2 cats and 7 fish at the time. The cats are self explanatory, but I went to so many pet stores and vets to see if anyone could tell me how to safely transport fish across the country. No one had an answer for me. Finally I just filled a 5 gallon tank 2/3 full of water from my 20 gallon tank and plopped the fish in there as well. (No gravel and only one cave-like ornament for my clown pleco) and I put that inside a black plastic tub and shoved towels around the tank for cushioning. I put it in my back seat and tried to take the speed bumps slowly! It took me about 8 days and we made a couple of pit stops along the way. Every night I would move the tank to my motel room and plug in an air pump. And every day I would drop in a slow releasing air stone. There was no heat or filtration during this time, but surprisingly they all survived and lived out their natural lives in beautiful BC! Mokanee