A friend of mine says in AK the voles are bulb-killers. Do you have cats to keep the population down? Otherwise...unlikely the winters in Anchorage are cold enough to kill bulbs, and if they are premium...

I'd check a couple of the locations and see if they are duds or digested. If its voles, I know daylilies and alliums aren't as yummy to them. Otherwise, doesn't brecks have a refund or replacement warranty?

-P

First of all, I'm no expert, so you may hope for more replies and/or check on some reliable websites for information. However.....

It's my understanding that bulbs should not be fertilized when they are first planted. They have enough of their own food store until the following year. Secondly, and this was told to me by the reputable seller, so should be gospel, in a colder zone, plant your tulips bulbs ( and any other bulb) about 2 inches deeper than the recommended depth. That's what I did and as far as I can tell almost everything came up. I didn't actually count. As far as the grape hyacinth goes, I tried them one year and I got nothing. Maybe check their zone rating.

I agree with arcticiris. Dig a few up to see if they're still there. Another thought. Do you have drainage issues? They may have rotted.

You may want to ask your neighbours about their tulips. Maybe they could help. Don't give up hope. Try again this fall.

I'd also restrict your purchases to reputable nurseries. I purchased quite a few bulbs last fall from Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart (I know, I know)...and had a success rate of about 10% this Spring. I later dug most of the bulbs up and found out that a great many of them were rotten, which leads me to suspect that they had probably died or were diseased when I planted them. I doubt it was winterkill, as I limited my purchases to species that were already growing in my garden. Live and learn!

I planted a bunch a bunch of bulbs years back and they came up every year but never bloomed. I think I did not plant deep enough, or maybe too deep according to one book. Over the years as I have put in new plants I move the bulbs around and randomly replant them in the process and I now am starting to get the ones that have survived blooming. If only I would have paid more attention to what I was doing. I also have a row of tulips in another bed that come up every year but how well they bloom depends on watering as the bed is overhung by a pine and gets very little natural moisture. Asking your neighbors is a great way to find out what they are doing and makes new gardening partners too

I have planted a few batches of tulips too shallow and they came up small & spindly and didn't bloom.

I have actually had good luck with cheap box store tulips. Sometimes they aren't the hugest bulbs and often the colour is wrong, but they can be good filler and I have some that look very nice and the price was right.

I posted earlier this spring about Angelique tulips and several people agreed they're not totally hardy here - so it's possible the types of tulips you planted are not fully hardy.

I have some large-flowered crocuses that went their first 3 years without ever blooming, but they bloomed this spring and really put on a show.

Thanks for the posts. I'm conceding that the hyacinth weren't hardy. The voles could be responsible for some of the bulbs as well. I also found some of the bulbs that didn't come up had no stem or foliage but did have a small root system. They weren't rotten, but hard and dry. I'm wondering if they didn't get enough moisture in the fall when I planted them. As for the others that didn't bloom- I will try to plant a bit deeper and try a location with full sun.
Brent & Becky bulbs were very friendly but did not offer to replace the bulbs.
I also want to warn that I was very disappointed with thier shipping. They billed me in Feb extra S&H for bulbs they shipped out in September (additional to the standard S&H I had already paid). Beware ordering form them outside of the US48. You may recieve a mysterious invoice months later... While additional shipping is common here, usually companies have the decency to inform you the amount in a reasonable time, and definately before the merchandise is under 2 1/2 ft of snow.

I'm in Wasilla, and last winter was hard on my bulbs...in fact, at least 1/2 didn't come up (and they'be been coming up for 3 to 5 years now, depending on which ones). Those that did come up just peeked up, looked awful, and then died. The little patch of grape hyacinth was probably 10 years old, and there wasn't single leaf that appeared this spring. The daffodils closest to the house came up great, but they get snowcover from the deck being shoveled, so that's all I can think of for the difference between those and everything else!

Another thing to consider........

Did you plant the bulbs early enough in the fall for them to establish before freezeup? You could also ask your neighbours about the best time to plant them in your area.

Order more and try again this fall =:)

I garden in Anchorage mid-Hillside (between Birch and Hillside). I planted a ton of bulbs from Brent and Beckys this year, and I sweated bullets all winter and breakup--especially when rivers of snowmelt were washing over the bulb spots.

EVERYTHING came up, with the exception of one "mixed bag" of narcissus. I selected things labeled hardy to zone 3, so perhaps that was what worked? The "mixed bag" was a random collection, and I made the mistake of planting it in one of the coldest spots in the garden, so I think that was the reason they almost all rotted (I dug them up to diagnose).

I planted blue and pink chionodoxa (the blue, in particular, was spectacular, and the first thing blooming), tulips of all sorts (some for cutting/nonperennial, perennial types in the regular beds), crocus, dwarf iris, and fragrant narcissus. Winston Churchill, in particular, was fabulous, as were the dwarf iris.

A family member in Stuckagin says she always mulches then covers the mulch with visqueen (helps warm up the soil earlier in the spring), then takes it off. I mulched with grass and leaf clippings but didn't do the visqueen, and all worked well. The bulbs are planted in a high spot that gets lots of sun, and the spring runoff mostly goes around the beds.

One more thing...I actually didn't plant at the recommended depth. I planted more shallowly, reasoning that our soil is so cold, and it stays so cold the deeper it is. I got away with it this year, since I mulched well and we had good snow cover. I might regret it in sparser snow years.

Even parrot tulips were gorgeous this year with this technique (in June, of course!)