storing tulips bulbs before planting
 

Every year it's the same story: garden centers start selling spring
bulbs so early! and if you wait for a month or two, they are almost all
gone by then! In the past, I had relatively bad experiences at keeping
bulbs bought in mid-August until, say, October for planting... I guess
the temperature in my flat is too high (probably between 20C and 25C at
this time of the year), and maybe it's to dry too.. When comes the time
for planting, many bulbs are "empty shells", completely dried up. In the
past I also tried to store them at the bottom of my house staircase (I
live in a tenement flat in Edinburgh), but this was too damp and cold,
and I had rotting and fungi disasters!
So, this year, I decided to do this properly: I bought a shelf, some
plastic boxes and bags of perlite. I opened the tulips (and other bulbs)
bags, and arrange them in a layer of perlite in the boxes, then put the
box at bthe bottom of the above mentioned staircase. I checked the
temperatu it's around 15C, and probably relatively constant. I put a
cover on the box to avoid the humidity to come in, and I thought that
the perlite will be enough to keep the bulbs dry.
Do you think it's the best way to go about it? Living in a flat, there
are not many alternatives...
Thanks
Gogo