Your bulbs from Royal Colors will have been stored previously under cool conditions and will be ready to go.

Modern hybrids do not need to be chilled or forced into dormancy to flower. However, in winter, a cool rest in a brightly lit environment seems to do them well, in terms of setting their annual cycle. Some people do that to try to time their blooming. Some follow those directions because of reading that that is what you have to do and the instructions are more related to what they go through during commercial production.

If you have to lift your bulbs from the ground each year, then the drying off followed by cool storage would perhaps be the way to go, so that will hopefully rest and not bloom till they are planted back in the soil. The problem is keeping them in storage for so long a time at home, It requires the right temperature (around 41F to hold them for the longest time)and with some humidity in the air around them.

I rest mine in winter, but not at very cool temperatures and they all bloom later in winter to spring. I just cut back on water and stop feeding. I let them go dryish for as long as possible due to lack of good light indoors. They may or may not lose all foliage, but if I cut them back completely when they are dry, they will rest that way.

At those prices, I agree, the had better be top quality!

Robert.

Hi Shiver. I have experience ordering from RC and their bulbs are very good quality. But looking at your zone, I hope it won't be too cold to have that shipment done now. I'm in zone 6/7 and we will be experiencing temp. lows below freezing in the next few days. I usually order from them in spring. If anything goes wrong with your bulbs (knock on wood), you can always email them about it. They have excellent customer service.

shiver,
Don't do anything with your hair. If anything happens to the bulbs, the company will take care of you. John Scheepers and McClure & Zimmermann are good companies too, I had very good experiences with them when I had any problems with the bulbs. Amaryllis Bulb Company is still good, but I got too many mislabeled bulbs from them, so I don't dare ordering from there, because I drive that woman crazy with my complaints all the time. :o) My Solomon, that turned out to be Orange Souvereing, was never replaced by a real Solomon. This is the bulb that froze down for me now... Thank God I bought another one earlier this October.

More on chilling:

It certainly won't hurt your bulbs to chill them at 55F for awhile. This can only assure that they have received adequate chilling. Lifted and dried bulbs need the chilling to further develop the flower bud within and to be able to start into growth soon after planting.

Robert.

Well, mine are all planted in the garden and we don't have any chill here. Aren't they more tropical anyway?
We rarely have a freeze and no freeze line. I think our freeze dates are mid-December to the first week in January.
I don't dig them up & chill them. When I buy new ones I just stick them in the ground.
Good luck & let us know how they do.
Tally HO!

Be carefull if you chill your bulbs. Mine got too cold. Not freezing but resulted in serious mostly fatal damage to the bulbs.

Some of my bulbs got frozen. Three of them died. But 4 of them survived and they are bringing up leaves now... I lost the mother bulb for Jaguar, but the two little bulblets survived. I am planting them now.