Thanks Campanula. You are so right.

Many inquiries here about tulips in mild winter zones. I hope these pictures will illustrate better than words what will happen in time if you are in such a zone.

Thanks for reporting back, I always find this stuff really interesting especially when I can look at a nearly two year experiment in just a few minutes!

What happened to all the other bulbs? I would have thought the pot would be packed with tulips yet it looks like most disappeared. I'm guessing they stayed in the same soil, but did you chill them at all? Coincidentally I have a few potted tulips which are just starting to grow. Hopefully they've had enough cooling, but to be honest if I can just get them to bloom once I'll be surprised... the second year will be anyone's guess.

Can I just say the first pot picture is so lovely?

I'm wondering if the other bulbs somehow rotted as there is so much empty area in that pot.

I'm thinking that I added tulips to the pots that I newly lasagna layered this year. Although there is no danger of me NOT taking pictures, I have every intention of its seeing what they do next year and I'll try to compare across the years.

So far, I have had success with daffodils and hyacinths coming back in the same pot. I do fertilize twice - before blooming but after buds showing and after blooming to try and encourage the bulb to bulk up. I'm seeing the hyacinth come back for the third year - quite impressive, really!

No chilling, no digging, no soil change from last year in this experiment where water was withheld all summer. I am surprised so many splits rotted. Potted hyacinths and daffodils do return fine in this mild winter zone 9. Hyacinths don't multiply (maybe in another 5 years ?) but the daffodils do. Especially 'Ice Follies'.

The pot of Darwin 'Daydream' is chock full of growth. Treated the very same. When they bloom I'll post a last year and this year's picture. I suspect the Pride strain of Darwins is a poor naturalizer even in the cold winter zones.

Thanks for looking.

Too bad they didn't come back stronger. Considering that they were essentially care free, even if you only had a few flowers it would still have been a good deal... even though the display would be nothing compared to that first year!

Not that it really matters and I'm not anywhere close to an expert on these things but I wouldn't call those tulips Darwin hybrids, they look more like triumph tulips to me. I've found this to be the case with many of the Darwin mixes sold in the big box stores and the club retailers like Costco and Sams. A great bargain but not always what it says on the label.

It will be interesting to see the next pot - same treatment and very different results.