A box full of treasures in the form of a delivery from Shipton Bulbs. Note that some of the bulbs come in brown paper bags and some in plastic bags with a little compost to keep them moist. 

 The bulb trade operates for the most part on the sale of dry bulbs which can be taken from the ground, stored, distributed and sat awhile in shops awaiting sale. Some species are indeed amenable to this. Their natural habit and habitat is to be spring flowering then go dormant in the summer when the soil is drier. A bulb is a storage organ for nutrients so may be able to dry out somewhat during dormancy and revive on planting in the autumn. 

 Case in point I ordered 20 "Tommies" (i.e. Crocus tommasinanus) which are usually fine as dry bulbs. Even so it's better to buy dry bulbs early in autumn when they will have been lifted fairly recently. Certain bulbs e.g. Snowdrops don't like to dry out and will quite possibly be dead rather than dormant if not fresh. Beware of end of season garden centre sales!

 For obvious reasons the bulk bulb growers tend to concentrate on species and cultivars that are most amenable to mass production and mass distribution. Like buying apples from a supermarket you get the ones that are easiest to commodify not necessarily the best to buy.

 By contrast Shipton specialise in native bulbs grown on their smallholding in Wales. My impression is that our wild species generally need to be moist throughout their life cycle e.g the Ramsons in this order.

 NB The term 'bulbs' is a convenience which often as not includes rhizomes, tubers and coums e.g. Solomon's Seal which arrives as gnarly sections of rhizome rather than bulbous.

 I also bought a handsome selection of Shipton's bare root plants. I've noted before they are about as close as you can get to actual wild things though cultivated. As mentioned a few days ago bare root seems to be enjoying a revival. On the whole I find it a better way to obtain well established, hardy specimens.