Usually from Costco, sometimes from Home Depot if I happen to be in the store at the right time. As far as I can tell they all come from the same source and the results have always been about the same. I always refrigerate from the first part of September till I plant the first part of December. The performance is good and the bulbs always look first rate. This year Costco's were packaged 60 to the bag for about $12.95. I bought 6 bags. I try and get a mix of early, mid season and late varieties to lengthen the bloom season. Al

I'm in Nevada,near enough as to make no difference in shipping, but a world away in terms of climate for most of California. I get my bulbs from everywhere: big-box stores (Lowe's and Home Depot, mostly), locally-owned nurseries (who apparently all use the same supplier--van Tubergen? van Zuyverden? van Somebody in any case...), and a variety of mail-order sources.

My first mail orders go to Odyssey Bulbs and Old House Gardens because they seldom, if ever, have sales, and they specialize in rare stuff not round elsewhere. When I remember (I forgot this year), I also like Telos Rare Bulbs, Jane Mc Gary (she only publishes an email list when she has extra bulbs), the Lily Garden and Far West Bulb Farm. I expect (and get) top-quality bulbs from these suppliers. Odyssey Bulbs has some species tulips, and Old House Gardens has mostly antique hybrid varieties. I should warn you, though: Old House Gardens should be considered the gateway drug of bulb planting.

My main-season orders are with Brent and Becky's Bulbs (yes, they DO carry pre-chilled bulbs) and Van Engelen/John Scheepers. If I needed pre-chilled bulbs, I'd probably go with Brent and Becky's. I usually get good quality bulbs, sometimes superb quality, from these suppliers.

Usually the bulbs are better than what I can get at the big box stores. Quality has been shipping at the locally owned nurseries as they turn to more pre-packaged bulbs. I understand why they do it, but I wish they wouldn't.

Once the end of season sales begin, I go with whoever has what I want: Brent and Becky's, Van Engelen, Bluestone Perennials, High Country Gardens, McClure and Zimmerman, Park Seed, White Flower Farm. Usually I buy from at least 60% of the above once the sales start. Since it's the end of the season and the bulbs have been in storage, it can be a bit of a gamble.

I also confess to ordering from Breck's and van Bourgondien IF I can get one of those 25 dollar no minimum purchase certificates (as in bulbs for free or just the cost of shipping), but quality is uneven at best, and I don't expect much for free.

The one thing that doesn't seem to impair the quality of the bulbs is shipping: what's one more week (or less)? Besides, most of the FedEx and UPS shipments end up going through Sacramento to get here. Of those that don't, it would be only another day in transit to California "proper".

As for pre-cooling and what does well down in California "flatlands", I have no idea. I don't remember my grandmother (in Sacramento) ever growing tulips. She did grow daffodils successfully, and we were treated (well, at least I thought it was a treat) to visits to Daffodil Hill in season. But gramma went with what she could grow, so she grew bearded Iris, Cymbidium orchids, citrus trees and bonsai Japanese Maples. I know my uncle in Rio Linda doesn't grow tulips, either. He grows stuff that can tolerate flooding, because he lives on the banks of a creek that likes...

Thanks for all the detailed info, I just planted some earlys from OSH and some other earlys in colors I could not find locally from Scheepers. I just find it odd that the ones from OSH have a 1/2" sprout which is kind of what I expect but the Scheepers have no sprout even though they both went in the fridge about the same time.

I overplanted heavily this year so I will get some good tulips come hell or high water!

This year's tulips were a very mixed bag. With the exception of Old House Gardens (I didn't buy any tulips from Odyssey Bulbs this year--bought other treasures instead), bulb quality varied hugely by variety and within a given bag.

The best hybrid tulip bulbs from other sources this year were Albert Hejn Fosteriana tulips I got at Home Depot. The worst were Rococco Parrot tulips I got from Bluestone Perennials. Everthing else was somewhere in between, and except for Old House Gardens, EVERY bag of tulips had at least one bulb that was blighted, rotted, dessicated or otherwise headed straight for the trash can (Daffodils, on the other hand, were the best I've seen in years regardless of supplier). Species tulips were generally okay to good, but nothing spectacular. At least none of those were trashcan-bound.

I'm guessing that this was an unusually bad year for tulips in the Netherlands, and that it was probably too wet and rainy.

It is always wet and rainy in the Netherlands in wintertime.