The advice is much the same whichever direction the bulbs - or seed - have travelled, I think. Get them growing -so for bulbs, plant them, water them a bit - keep them growing as long as possible and realise that they may grow and flower "out of synch" for a couple of years before their internal clock resets.
This has been discussed previously in the forum..... here are a few quotes from various forumists over the years : ;
on Gethylllis :
If sent from SA in our autumn the bulbs will have only just entered dormancy and would therefore not start to grow until after they have had a warm dry period for a few months - they need this physiological trigger. If it were me I would keep them bone dry until our autumn to let our summer do the job (keeping them dormant for a full year will not harm them - bulbs often do this in nature anyway in drought years). This has worked for me with imported Daubenya - but I lost a few to rot before I got it right. There is always a temptation to give them a bit of moisture and this must be resisted until the bulbs are ready for it.
on Massonia
"July 18
I actually sowed mine today! I was following advice from Darren (Sleep) who gave a talk at our group last year on South African bulbs - his results speak for themselves.
I had been keeping my seeds in the refrigerator over the summer and by the time of his talk last September he thought I was too late, so should keep them in the refrigerator over the winter/spring and so them about.......now.
I hope I got that correct Darren
, I should have taken written notes"
Darren's reply :
"Should work fine Peter.
September would be OK actually, but not if the seed had spent summer in the fridge as most cape bulb seed needs a warm summer prior to first watering and cooler temps triggering germination in autumn.
Personally I store all my (winter growing) bulb seed at room temperature and only sow from late july until late september. Any bulb seed arriving outside this period stays at room temp until the following late summer/autumn. I've currently got a lot of seed purchased from Summerfield and Silverhill last winter which will be sown next month.
Exceptions to this timing are the Amaryllids with fleshy seeds which are sown immediately even if imported from the southern hemisphere in our early summer. The seed often germinates in the post and seedings need to be kept cool and will then stay in growth until the following April when they can be dried off and treated as normal for winter growers."
on Tulips
I am no expert on tulips though I grow a few.
I have however converted a few bulbs from the southern hemisphere. The main thing is to pursuade the dormant bulb to grow roots at a suitable time in it's new home.
If your March is like October for tulips it should root. the next problem will be to keep it growing when it comes up, You will probably have to water it in April May June. if it is too hot the bulbs will cook.
I would plant the bulbs in sand and keep them in the shade outside. I would give only a little of water until they show leaves. Not dry, not wet.
on Tecophilaea
April
Having come from the southern hemisphere these corms are on the point of growing now and many already have a short green shoot appearing. They will have to be planted and watered on arrival and kept growing for as long as possible. Most should flower, they are certainly big enough, then build them up with additional potassium feeding before they go dormant.
They should then be given a short rest before starting them off again in the Autumn in the normal Northern Hemisphere cycle for growing bulbs.
Bear in mind that advice for seeds is usually good for bulbs too.
