Can I save the bulbs?

[Todayissunny]

Around Easter time part of our garden needs to be dug up. There are loads of bulbs planted which flowerthroughthewholesummer. Snowdrops are in flower now.
Can I dig up the bulbs and save them? Do I need to immediately replant the ones not yet flowered or flowering? Can I store them to replant later?
Thanks.

Cant you just pot them up?

The ones that have flowered will need their foliage to die back to re-nourish the bulbs for next year. The ones yet to flower can just flower, and die back in their pot.

Of course, if they're getting old, it might be worth chucking them and starting again. But I dont like chucking things so I'd def give pots a go...

You'd also probably lose a fair proportion by spiking them when you dig them up.

I have tulips which I dug out when putting in a playhouse which now live quite happily pretty neglected in their pot and flower year after year. So I reckon digging them out and putting in pots until you can put them back in the ground will be fine. Dig gently with a fork and your lose less to chopping/spearing damage. That said - I've seen half chopped ones recover and flower so I wouldn't sweat too much

Thanks for the tips. I would have to invest in pots and earth so I think I will try to find somewhere safe to replant them and try to replant them. I was hoping that I could dig up the sleeping ones and store thm in a cardboard box.

Snowdrops definitely need to be replanted, straight away, and watered in.

Can you find a spot of garden to plant them in? You can plant them more crowdedly than if you were planting them permanently, so it needn't be such a big space.

Give priority to the snowdrops which don't like being dried out. Daffodils and crocuses at a pinch can be just stowed somewhere, but you might lose next year's flowers.

You could use cardboard boxes for planting, or plastic bags with drainage holes. They will be fine with soil from your garden - use some of the topsoil of the bit that needs digging up.