You need to let them die back completely before you lift and split the bulbs up. put a few small canes round where the clump is so you can find them.

Hi Lizziebee,
I have all my tulips in the beds now, and they're showing that the best has now been and is goning ref bloom and so i myself mark the area they are in and feed the ground now so the bulbs will have food for next year in their system,
two things to think about ref you wanting to thin out and not knowing the location of the bulbs,

One good idea for you and if anyone has a small garden and is tight on growing space,
Why not grow your bulbs "tulip/daffs etc in pots and plant the complete pot in the ground when you'd as a norm would plant the bulbs outside anyway,

then when you arrive at this time of the year and you want to move the bulbs all you do is lift the complete pot and put it out of the way "behind the shed /Greenhouse etc and let the bulb slow down in its own time,
later on this year you can just replant the pot with bulb in-place to your choice in the garden for flowering next spring and so on.

I myself plant lilies next to the tulips and this way as the tulips finish flowering the lilies are growing and this idea along with a nice ribe shrub near to the lilies ive got colour and a nice smelling area of garden for early showing.

You can always have a drawing or plan on paper to help remember the location of all bulbs etc.
Hope this helps.

Thanks MG, that is what I will do, I have some in pots anyway Dungy, so will just move them in time, I want them to fill gaps in the spring in a new bed.

You can move them now, lift them in the green thats what i have been doing for as long as i can remember, cut the spent flower heads off so seed is not produced which helps quicken the foliage dieing back, store in a dry area take away withered foliage and store untill later in the year and plant out in the desired position.

Julien it is far better to wait and allow the foliage to die back naturally so the bulb is well fed for the following year.

Sorry moongrow but your wrong, lift in the green like i have said and the foliage dies back and feeds the bulb, i have been doing it for years, trust me i have moved thousands upon thousands of tulip bulbs from knot garden beds to make way for other planting schemes, never a problem year after year they come back.

That could work if you are lifting and moving without disturbing the clump Lizziebee wants to split the bulbs up. RHS advice is not not to lift and split in the green but as Dungy has said to feed until the leaves die down and then split.

But you have to understand that i have the knowledge and expierience of this procedure which has always worked there is no getting away from that,please understand i have a vast wealth of horticultural no how, i started at the age of eight so i now have 42 years under my belt most of which has been spent working for the general public, i too am a member of the RHS, and there have been times when they have been wrong, like i say if it were me i would lift them now thats how confident i am.

Well congratulations Julien I started at around the same age as you and given that I am now 64 have, perhaps, more knowledge than you! Lifting the bulbs now and splitting them will break the roots contact with the soil - thus preventing them from gaining any more nourishment. Lizziebee feed the bulbs you plan to split half strength tomato food once a week until the leaves die back and then move, you'll have far more success.

Lets not be silly moongrow, regardless of how many years knowledge you or i may have, then i reiterate that if i have lifted thousands of tulip bulbs on a mass scale from the same bed for many years and every year they flower perfectly then surely that proves the point, not trying to be difficult but its fact, i seem to remember that you were once adamant to me that Rhodis could not be hard pruned, when clearly they can, we disagreed then, i have many pictures that at the time were taken of before and varying stages of growth resulting from hard pruning afterwards, i will always pass on factual knowledge gained from the practical expierience achieved, which is beneficial to folk seeking help.

Lizziebee I am sorry you have been subjected to Julien and myself disagreeing. At the end of the day you will have to make your own decision. Strangely I do know about bulbs - Bulbaholic and I grow rather a lot of them - that said I will not make any further comments on this question.