Re; Tulip Trouble

Bought these tulips.
Planned to plant after last frost.
Now I read these should have been refrigerated??

if i put in fridge now - for 4/6 weeks - planting in late April/May is that okay??

or leave n fridge until late May early June?
would these dates be too late to plant for North Carolina?

Tulip type: some white.
some black and several called angelique.

or have i already made a mess and should just trash and begin anew and informed in the fall.

any advice is appreciated.

50glee

I think early blooming bulbs are always planted in the fall. I don't think they would bloom this year at all. It will be to warm for them. Sorry that you are losing those bulbs.

some are mid bloomers.
if i put in the fridge till May could they still bloom?

dont really like the idea of throwing these out without trying some form of salvaging.

I wouldn't throw them out. Plant them anyway or store them until fall and then plant. You'll get flowers next spring. I wouldn't throw them out unless they're all mushy and no good.

I wouldn't throw them out either......

You could force them - pot them up and then put them in the fridge for about 8 weeks. Bring them out slowly and they should flower. You will be able to enjoy the flowers - just a bit later than if you planted them in the ground. Then, when they are finished flowering and the foliage has yellowed - put them aside until Fall when you can plant them.

In the South, tulips are a one-time thing. They can't handle the heat. Plant them now and enjoy the smaller blooms since they weren't chilled properly. They should be chilled in Nov-Dec. and planted the first week of January.

update:

contacted the seller.
They have already been chilled.
Painting pots today for planting tomorrow.

Thanks all of you wonderful concerned tulip lovers for your advice and help.

dp72: "They should be chilled in Nov-Dec. and planted the first week of January. " I must remember that!

Thanks all again.

I'm in the south in 8b and my first try at tulips was 2008. I figured they wouldn't come back due to our mild winters. But guess what? They came back this year, and had increased slightly! So don't underestimate them!

Blue Diamond was the cultivar that came back for me.

Have they bloomed? They'll usually come up even if they didn't get enough chill, it's the flowers that will suffer.

Oh yes, they bloomed!

Awesome! Have you had others come back and bloom for you or just the Blue Diamond? I love tulips but I'm way too lazy to dig them up and chill them every year or buy new ones and plant them.

Just the Blue Diamond ...they were one of two different cultivars, which were the first tulips I ever tried, which was 2008. Also in 2008 I planted some sale rack orange tulips of unknown type from Wal Mart. Last fall, I did a little test.....I could easily dig up the orange tulips as they were not spread out where they were planted. I figured the Blue Diamond ones would just be lost, and did not dig them, because of their location. I dug up the orange ones, put in refrigerator for 8 weeks. When I removed them from the fridge, they had shriveled terribly and were really dead looking. I put the viable looking ones in another bed back in December and have not seen them again. The Blue Diamonds, which were my only other tulips, were left in the ground to sink or swim. They came up about a month ago and have bloomed and are almost done. So the results of my experiement led me to believe that I CAN grow tulips here, depending on the type, and that refrigerating may not be the best option for me.