Ouch. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... Unless the place where you stored them was quite cold, tulips will not flower without 2-3 months of refrigeration or winter temperatures before planting.

Tulips will probably get eaten if planted in an area with deer and rabbits.

Tulips do not naturally flower every year. Depending on the type, you may get flowers for two or three years, but they do not flower when the bulbs are dividing, which naturally happens every few years. Purchased tulip bulbs are synchronized, such that almost all will flower the first year, but then almost none will flower the third year. Perennialized tulips are ones which have gotten out of sync, with the result that about 30% flower every year.

I would put them in the ground now.

It would give them the best chance.

They won't do anything this year but hopefully the will come up for you in the Sping. Forced bulbs are very weak so no guarentee, but it is worth a shot.

Keeping them in a container would be risky as well because they need a cool period as mentioned before and it is a fine line with bulb rot.

Good Luck

Happy Gardening

Keriann~

Thanks for the prompt responses. I thought it might be too late for this year and your answers confirmed that.

I'm disappointed that the bulbs won't stand a chance with the wildlife here, but I suspected that might be the case. Thought maybe there was a way to work around that with a deer resistant product that I'd never heard of.

The one thing I'm not clear on is whether I could put them in the fridge for 2 months before planting in a container (for next yr.) then take them out and keep them in the cool dark basement until 2 months in the fridge before putting them in the container the following spring. This, as opposed to keeping them in a container throughout the year. I would be happy to be able to look forward to having them come up each spring in a container on my porch, though my preference would have been to take the easier route and just plant them outdoors.

One year I got some tulips to late to plant the ground had frozen over so I stored in the fridge until early March. I planted them and they did bloom, a little later then the others.