Good to know Gerard since here in Houston, the temperatures during the winter months may exceed 55F in the garage. There is no reliable way to keep bulbs cool here naturally in the winter months.
Kristi

What do you mean by Bar Fridge?
I bought a wine cooler two years ago and in a few months, it has managed to freeze down the back and bottom with some bulbs as well. I have had the best result with normal everyday fridges that have the freezer separated. The temperature is constant inside, the walls do not cool down excessively, and it does not make the bulbs "sweat," releasing moisture, so it prevents ice building up on the walls or on the bottom of the fridge.
Be careful with wine coolers!

I had the same problem as soultan. My bar fridge froze the bulbs that were against the walls. It also kept the bulbs much too damp, and there was some rot. I found a full size fridge worked better, but be sure the bulbs are clean and dry before they are cooled. Any dirt on the bulbs is full of fungal spores. I finally gave up on chilling, and just treat my old Amaryllis like houseplants in the winter, letting nature determine when they will rebloom.

Soultan/palmcoastgarden: These are the small fridges that people use either in dorm rooms, apartments etc. They are about half the size or less than regular fridges. So far I have not had any problem with anything freezing as this fridge does not have a freezer in it and as I stated in the first post, I use a timer to cycle the power on for an hour and off for two hours. I have a maximum/minimum thermometer in the fridge to monitor the temperatures for me and have found that they have not gone lower than about 9ºC. So far there have been no problems with mold etc. I even had one variety (Gilmar) left in the pot with soil etc (couldn't take it out and wash the soil off because it was fairly rootbound) and it is actually growing gangbusters now (leaves, no flowers). I've since pulled out the first batch of bulbs and have had them planted for a few weeks now. They are putting on various rates of growth with the Gilmar being the fastest and having the most growth. I found that the humidity in the fridge was 70% or so. Some of the bulbs had fair sized roots going into storage but have found that even with the high humidity, those roots have shriveled beyond recovery. I'm going through all of this trouble because I have found that in the past, just drying the bulbs off for a few months didn't result in very fast growth upon starting them up again.

I've seen several threads of people like yourself palmcoast, who just treat their Amaryllis as houseplants allowing them to grow and flower when they will. That is definitely an option which I may try down the road (and I know it works just fine :-) ) but for now, I'm just tweaking and experimenting. According to some sources of information, putting the bulbs through this cooling period results in faster growth when the bulbs are taken out, watered and placed in a warm spot.

I have a small dorm type fridge, but it does have a little freezer compartment. The fridge can only be adjusted to the low 40 degree range as the warmest it will hold temperature. It doesn't have any room for storing potted bulbs, so I would have to un-pot any that were to be put inside.

At present, I just treat all my bulbs as houseplants, and allow them to choose their own rest periods and growth times... most will bloom in spring. If I do decide to force a dormancy on any of my bulbs, I would clean them, clip off the leaves, dust with a fungicide, wrap them loosely in paper, and then place them in a cardboard box inside a fridge, taking care that no bulbs are touching each other. I would check on them periodically to make sure the temperature was holding steady, and that there was no mold or fungus present.

An easier way would be to withhold watering, and take the potted bulbs to a cool, dark space to rest for the prescribed length of time... a frost-free garage or basement would be ideal.

This is something I will have to think about doing if my collection continues to increase... I will need to rotate bulbs for space issues!

It's nice that we have some options as far as dormancy is concerned... it makes growing and collecting very interesting, and we can plan our flowering time!

"we can plan our flowering time"

Ding!Ding!Ding!Ding! You hit the jackpot Jodi! Now that is the best advantage of putting your bulbs to rest...

FORCING!!!

Planning the time a bulb will flower is only workable if the bulb has had a previous season of sunlight and enough food, so that it has plenty of energy to bloom... not to mention the fact that it must first set buds.

Very few of my larger bulbs have gotten what I would consider to be enough light... they have been languishing indoors, and some have been forced to grow in a northern exposure, which I doubt is enough light to fully recharge. Several have gotten what might be considered just enough light, so those might bloom... but over all, I think I've shorted my poor bulbs because of overcrowding and poor lighting. I have fed them well, but that's not enough... they require a lot of sunshine to turn that food into energy!

That will all change, though, as lighting has recently been added.

The only bulbs I have that went out for the summer are my Sprekelia bulbs and a pot of Lycoris radiata. I was too paranoid of insect damage and damage from rain, wind and storms.

My consolation is... with a season of sunlight, they will all bloom again... I might have to wait a year, but they will bloom with the proper care. Some may surprise me, though...