>>>My Tesselaar order arrived yesterday (Friday), which was pretty quick, considering I'd only ordered them on Wednesday.
Wow, that's not "pretty" quick, that's amazingly quick! (got to give credit where credit is due...)
And yes! The roots are what counts (aside from general health). In fact I have dug some of my most vigorous martagon seedlings, expecting big bulbs, only to find a much smaller bulb with a massive root system.
That's a double whammy with the bigger bulb, but your winters are so warm that it could grow enough roots, so it might still come up. My concern is that your winters are not cold enough for martagons. It will be interesting to see what happens in the long run.
Martagon section species may skip a season above ground, even if not moved (if conditions aren't the best for them). But that doesn't mean the just sit there. Besides building a root system, their bulb size will likely increase, too.
