Arif, whether or not you should lift the bulbs now and pot them up individually, or let them bloom and pot them up later would have to be respectively according to your personal preferences of whether or not you would rather enjoy individually potted blooming flowers or flowers that are blooming in groups. =) I would personally just let them bloom and sort later. However, should you decide to lift the bulbs now, I would recommend that you simply lay them out to dry in a cool, dry place and allow the leaves to dry out a bit before cutting them off. Best of luck and may you find happiness in the fruits of your patience and labor. =)

I am not experienced enough to give you advice, but I am interested in how and what you do, and why, as I am gathering information for my future plantings of seedlings...

Every time you or Sir Hans post new photos of your breeding results, it gives me more enthusiasm toward my future plans of breeding and crossing! I keep a journal, and write down any pertinent information that I can use in the future!

I thank you for sharing your pictures, and your ideas!

I would have to say the same. But please let us all know what you do and how it turns out and if you are pleased with the result! You be the teacher this time!

Hello
Hans-Werner
Bill
The bulbs at this stage are in semi dormant stage, so the trauma of transplant would be minimal.
At bloom the bulb would be in active growth stage and transplanting may affect its subsequent growth.
At this stage I would have to replant every sizeable bulb while at bloom I would be potting only the selected ones and discard the unwanted.
Cutting of leaves in my opinion is a life threat to the bulb and should induce it to flower. On the other hand the bulb will be spending lot of reserve energy to grow new foliage.
I can also divide the lot in two halves as an experiment.
Do not hold back.
ARIF

As I said, I have no experience with which to advise, but if it were me, I would leave all the greenery intact... I would not cut any leaves off. I would most likely allow everything to keep growing as it is and where it is, if there is enough space... and make my judgment call on which flowers to pot up after they open blooms and I could see what they looked like... then, I would carefully dig up the ones I wanted and plant them in pots.

At that point, I would sort through the others with regards to size, vigor and other signs of being either "strong", "middle", or "weaklings", as you stated... and without cutting any greenery, I would pot up or re-plant the ones I thought would yield the best results, and separate them from the middle and weakest, which I would plant in separate beds or areas...

Mother Nature works in strange ways... a plant that you might look upon as being "not the best" may turn out to have the most beautiful flowers, or may bloom with an unusual color palate that you really like... or may even become stronger and have more vigor even if it began life as a weakling...

Arif,

If they are not overly crowded, I would wait to lift them.

As to removing the leaves, I would only do that after they have yellowed and died (if they do).

Because I get frost, and a few hard freezes (28 degrees F), I have not tried to put my younger seedlings in the garden. However, I may try that, this year, with Tet seedings.

Unfortunately, I am too new to cybisters and trumpets to know what to do about them, yet.

Please do let us know what you decide and how well they do. I do not blame you for not destroying the weaklings. Sometimes, I think these are weak due to circumstances and conditions. You never know. They may end up being some of the stronger ones.

If you have the space and the climate, you can try lots of things.

Thanks for all the gorgeous pictures and your warm heart!

Thank you Elizebeth and Jodick,
I will decide after I hear fro GURU & Pundit
ARIF

Hans
Please say some thing.
ARIF

But Arif, I am still reflecting on this serious question!

The actual state of my recommendation would be to let them in the ground. Wait until new growth will begin to sprout and you can clearly distinguish bloomable specimens from others. Then, take them all out. Replant the bulbs which carry scapes into pots. Prepare the ground thoroughly and replant the non-bloomers there. Observe the buds of the individually planted bloomable bulbs thoroughly. Discard these bloomers which show no progress or interesting features as soon as you can perceive that, or give those away. As far as I can see, there are SOME interesting specimens in your stock. Particularly those nicely shaped with pale pinkish/yellowish/apricot colors with pronounced veining. And these other dainty specimens which resemble Baby Star (orange red with a broad wite midrib). And, not to forget some of your doubles which are rather good. BUT, you should perhaps discard a lot of the midi sized singlles with washed out colors. There is even a 4. group I could distinguish within your mongrels, that is these singles with red edges. Out of these, some look "morbid" (as if infested with a serious disease) - keep only the very very best of these and try to improve them.

Thanks Hans , that is what I shell be doing.