Dec is the normal time as putting them in the ground now can result in them growing. They tend to come up blind because of being out all winter.

Bit too early now. Not sure i'd agree with the above....you can plant them in December but i've always planted mid oct to mid nov as optimum

So what happens to the tulip bulbs that have been in the ground for a year or two? Or, in the wild were they are permanently in the ground? Tulips, and all other bulbs, do not thrive in paper bags. They have to be out of the ground to be transported and sold but should then go back into the ground asap.

Agree with Bulba.

Well I'm not digging them all up again after planting dozens of bulbs last weekends at my daughter's. They all had "plant August onwards" on the instructions.

Thanks for your answers. Will hold off ordering bulbs for a while yet.

"So what happens to the tulip bulbs that have been in the ground for a year or two? "

As they have roots that are not dry and need to be reestablished they do not grow until after a period of cold weather. They need cold to grow. Lifted Tulip bulbs have dried out roots and as soon as they get wet they regrow and as the bulb has no idea where it is it thinks it is time to grow and throws up its stem. That gets damaged by frost and tends to make it blind/small.

Never had any problem with tulips, Botanic, in our relatively mild and moist climate. As Cammomile points out general advice is now trending to plant early ' August onwards'.

The reason you're supposed to plant tulips later than other bulbs (November is recommended) is to reduce the risk of tulip fire. Not that I've noticed a problem with tulip fire whenever they've been planted, but that's the thinking behind it. The packet instructions on bulbs always say plant from August onwards, but its only a general guide to ensure you don't plant them in March or January or spring. Certainly daffodils should really be in the ground by end of August, not later, because they start producing roots in August, much earlier than other bulbs.

So far as I know Botanic bulbs do not keep their roots from year to year. They go completely doorman in the ground, lose their roots and start to grow new ones in autumn. When we un-pot out narcissus and tulip bulbs in June time they don't have any sign of roots.