Newbie question

I know that bulbs such as tulips and daffs and hyacinths need some semblance of winter. But I'm not sure exactly why. In other words, if we have bulbs that are starting to stick up thru the surface (nice healthy tops), does that mean they have had enough of a winter? Or, is it possible that they'll come up with normal healthy looking foliage, but not ever flower? This has been such an odd winter so far (odd, even for Georgia). Just curious.
thx
jo

Different bulbs have different requirements. I just attended a lecture on forcing bulbs and recall that most tulips
require 5 weeks at mid-40's to grow proper roots. They need longer cool temps to bloom. Tulips, many daffs &
hyacynths typically need something like 10-12wks of cold for the bulb to bloom. If the folliage comes up early,
that's typically OK as long as the bulbs do get their time in the cold. So hope for a few months of 40 degree temps!

To force the bulbs, you can put them in a refridgerator w/o soil first, then pot up to allow root formation and
then after the 5wks put in a greenhouse to allow folliage to form.

The guy doing the lecture went so far as to put ice shavings on his crocus to delay bloom so he could enter them
into a flower show competition.

Tam