Once you get your soil fixed up, you can plant your bulbs like snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses,, etc. in very late August or early September. Tulips are better planted in late September or early October. Generally speaking, bulbs like a freely draining soil and may rot in too much clay. Mix compost, course (horticultual) sand, peat moss, bagged or very old manure, etc. in with your own garden soil and you should be OK. Hardy lily bulbs can be planted in either spring or early fall.

If you have squirrels around they will dig up and eat tulip bulbs, but they don't touch daffodil bulbs. If you have squirels make a half round with chicken wire. Plant your bulbs and put the cage you made over them. The tulips will grow up through the holes but the squirrels can't get the bulbs

Hi
Last fall I planted some bulbs and like you not all of them came up. I thought they had all rotted and so dug in the area to plant some perenials and found the bulbs sitting there firm as can be. Why they didn't grow...I have no idea. I plan on checking another area where they didn't grow and if they are the same moving them into some softer ground.
Kathy

Okay, one thing to ask is about timing. The other thing to ask is what is the quality of the bulbs. When were these bulbs purchased? thh20 mentioned late summer and so did kathy. Were these on sale bulbs? Which may indicate that these are bulbs from the previous season - meaning they were probably dug up sometime in the early months of the previous year and get shipped out to various countries. (bulbs mostly come from Holland) What were the quality? Skinny, blemished, moldy? or firm and shiny.

Sometimes I've seen bulbs that are old and has been around for some time still being sold off. These are not good quality bulbs. Ignore them. They've probably been out of the ground for more than a year. Then again, I've seen bulbs being sold as new bulbs and yet are not of good quality. Always check for firmness and for rot before buying. And if it will take time for you to plunk these things in the ground, make sure you don't store them in airless containers. They will rot. Don't water them until you get them in the ground. If it at all takes a while before you can plant them out, store them in paper bags in the refrigerator.

The ideal time to plunk these spring bulbs in the ground when the weather starts to cool off and this is around Sept - November when the grounds are still workeable. Sometimes you may get to add the bulbs in December.

Bulbs that have been out of the ground for a prolonged period will need time to recover and some won't bloom the following year. If they do, they may actually exhaust themselves and die out. Some may build up their energy and will bloom in the second season in the ground.. such as Kathy has experience.

I hope this helps with some of your questions.

After a certain no. of years, bulbs do deminish in quality and will require replacement. In Holland, the producer of most the bulbs, their public parks are planted with massive amount of tulip bulbs and yet after every season, these bulbs are dug up and destroyed. It's too bad they treat these bulbs as annuals. You can get good quality blooms from these things for several years before it starts diminishing in quality.

Some bulbs will multiply like crocuses,daffodils and alliums. I just love it when it happens.

Ianna