These are spring flowering bulbs and not houseplants. How did you care for them after they finished blooming last year? Were they ever able to spend time outdoors?

FWIW, tulips (the last photo) are hard enough to get to rebloom a second year even when planted in the ground. In fact, many gardeners treat them almost as annuals and replant with fresh bulbs each fall.

some of these have winter chill requirements ... have these indoor plants gotten the required chill???

that is the usual reason.. people who force them indoors . start with new bulbs.. each year ... and after they bloom indoors.. they plant them outside.. for future years ...

i doubt the media/soil in the pot has much to do with it ... other than the fact that you have a lot of bulbs in the older pots .... and that would not really be a soil issue ...

some people chill them in the refrigerator ... and i presume you can find info on that on the web ...

welcome to the forums ....

ken

"tulips (the last photo) are hard enough to get to rebloom a second year even when planted in the ground. "

I have never heard anything farther from the truth. My Tulips, for many years already, bloom year after year. . . . But may be it is so because I do nothing "to get " them to bloom :‑J

I agree, though, that there could be some unknown to me varieties that are "almost like annuals".

What I just said is re. the plants growing in the ground and is not related to the OP's case. Growing Tulips in pots inside is a different story. I don't have personal experience with that, but I believe that they could greatly benefit from being exposed to the close-to or below- the-freezing-mark temperature for a period of time during winter. I would also give them much bigger pots.

"I have never heard anything farther from the truth."

Well then you are indeed a rarity :-) It is an extremely well documented fact that the ability to perennialize or return and bloom reliably year after year has been bred out of most hybrid tulips. Species tulips and a few hybrids - Darwins and some of the Fosterianas in particular - will return and bloom again but most others will not. Or stop doing so after just a couple of years, producing only foliage and finally petering out altogether. This is documented all over the internet and there are dozens of threads on this topic on the Bulbs forum. Even commercial tulip bulb growers admit to this issue.

btw, I live close to the largest commercial tulip growing fields outside of Holland, so obviously a very conducive environment for these bulbs. However, even here getting tulips other than the species and a few hybrid culitvars to return and bloom reliably for more than just a few years at most is wishful thinking. They just do not have that ability in their genes regardless of how creative or crafty or neglegent you may be in the garden.

You must have just the right conditions and just the right cultivars, windberry. You've been very lucky.

I think the vegetative form of your bulbs is pretty. They dont really need saving, they are just not flowering. Some of them will again, others not. But nevertheless, they are still pretty plants. I do recommed you change your soil every 1 or 2 years. Also search for the dormancy needs and flowering habits of each species you have so, if you want flowers, you can provide the conditions for it to happen again. I personally like the tulip leaves, so, even is doesnt flower anymore I would mantain it as a pretty houseplant.

Here is another one, also growing in my vegetable garden from a bulb thrown on my compost pile:

x

Yep, those are old fashioned Darwins, one of the types gardengal referred to as perennialising.

Here, even the tulip species known for perennializing aren't doing so well. Of course, this year due to that polar vortex last week, many daffodils look like boiled grass too.