Tony, the time for putting them anywhere was in the fall, into the ground. There, they attain roots which then gives the bulbs protection against winter freezes. Not having done that, you put them into a refrigerator and there, they received much the same cool temperatures they would have received had they gone into the ground. So what you have are viable bulbs that have not rooted yet. Here it is mid February....spring flowering bulbs will be shortly showing themselves in the garden. Hardly enough time to still do anything with them so you must plan on making these able to be planted in the spring. In the fridge, you could have potted them up, watered them and they would gotten their roots. At that time then, you could expect them to be able to be brought forth into sunlight where they would have flowred. Forced is what they would have been. Now, all you can expect is once in the garden, they probably will not root up...but, if they can stand up to not rotting, they will begin their lives next fall, and appear spring of '07 as normal. Potting them up now, watering them and keeping them in a COOL....NOT UNINSULATED...there, any water in the pot would surely freeze. Bulbs must NEVER freeze. So there you have a problem...unless you can give the bulbs the same temperatures they received in the fridge, I'm afraid you are stuck with keeping them there until you can plant them in the garden in the spring.....and leave them there. Any foliage that might come up this spring/summer, should be left as though they had come normal. Let it die back, go yellow and shrivel up. Then the bulb can be left to do its normal thing. Flowering should result in '07.

Don't store them where they can be in contact with cold or where moisture is. that lets out your trunk, they'd rot for sure in a short time there. The refrigerator, in the vegetable bin...and the vegetables and/or fruit somewhere else. You should wait until the soil has firmly warmed up to plant them outside. The thing about glads, they can be planted sporadically, about every two weeks during the growing season. In zone 5, that's up to the end of June. Other zones, prior to or later than. This gives you color throughout the season. If this is your first time with dahlia I suggest you read further artciles on these tubers because what you put into the ground this spring need not be the tuber you remove in the fall. They multiply. They have such an expansive amount of foliage, be sure to give them sufficient space to grow and bloom. As they come up, prepare to stake them or otherwise put up cages for them to grow up and out. If you do this as the plant grows, you wont be caught unawares when the volume of foliage spills over. This then can affect other nearby plants...will shade maybe some that want full sun. Do prepare in what exposure your glads and dahlia are hit with and how they might interfere with other nearby plants.

The whole "spring bulb" and "fall bulb" labels can be confusing. Tulips/Daffodils/Crocus/Hyacinth and the like, for example - planted in the fall, but people generally call them spring bulbs because that's when they bloom. However, the bulbs you see for sale in the fall are the hardy plants that generally want a cold period and will survive the winter and come back year after year, like those I mentioned above. What you see for sale in the spring are the non-hardy bulbs and bulb-like plants that will not survive in the ground over winter, such as Dahlias, Caladiums, Elephant Ears, Glads, Cannas. Some people treat these as annuals, and others lift the roots and store them from year to year, replanting each spring. Of course, as you move further south, eventually you reach a zone for each of these things where it will be hardy outside through the winter, i.e., they will be perennials - for Glads and Cannas, we're probably talking US zone 7, a little further south for the other things mentioned. Still, they are traditionally sold in the spring because the merchants want to cover the whole range of both cold and warm zones with one sales period. The confusion comes because there are a lot of things you see packaged bare-root like bulbs which are for sale in both fall and spring - such as the Astilbe and Bleeding Heart you mention above and lots of other perennials. As you say, the packages look identical with the same contents and one shows fall planting and the other shows spring planting. These are the things that are successfully divided and transplanted any time they are dormant, which is from fall until they start to grow in the spring, so they are sold at both times. Lilies are a true bulb that is also in this category - the bulb never goes completely dormant, so they can put out new roots any time you transplant and will do well either spring or fall planted. As Cranebill mentions above, the best results for any given growing season will come if you get them in during the fall before, but I have always had success with them in the spring. Also, as Cranebill mentions above, if in doubt when spring comes, plant it anyway. The worst that can happen is that it won't grow, which is ASSURED if you don't plant it. - Steve

I am very fond of naturalised bulbs but strange as it may seem getting a 'natural' look can be quite hard work. It works best with the simpler flowers like species daffs, tulips and crocuses. The big fat artificial hyacinths might look a bit odd but in following years will probably begin to look more airy and natural. As others have said these will all require slightly different depths and conditions. Fritillaria meleagris, for example, (your 'checkered lilies') are a British wild flower which grows in damp meadows. I think it could be done but the bulbs would need to be carefully placed and the grass left uncut for a meadow look until well after the last flower was over. If you plant in a bed you will still have to live with dying foliage over a long period of time until the last ones are flowered unless you are prepared for constant maintenance to remove each variety's spent leaves as they goes over. The link might be useful Here is a link that might be useful: naturalising bulbs