It depends what kind of tulips you bought. There are early mid and late season tulips. I have the early ones and they came up under the snow this year. Usually mine start to poke through the ground before all the snow is melted.

Don't feel bad - I don't remember which tulips I planted last fall, either, and I'm not a newbie. Getting to be kind of an oldie :-) ! Mine are just now starting to poke thru - I don't expect to see blooms on them until the latter half of May .

I'm kinda worried now that they aren't going to come up....all of the snow is gone and there isn't a sign of anything emerging. I'm pretty sure I did everything right, but I've heard from so many people that they planted tulips and the just never showed up the following spring. I planted them in a circular bed with a border of muscari around them.... no sign of the muscari either. Maybe I'm just too anxious to see them! I'll just have to be patient for a little longer I suppose:)

Be patient. First year bulbs almost always come up later because they come from god-knows-where and need to adjust to the local season.

Usually if they don't show up the squirrels ate the bulbs