years ago on a TV show I heard Martha Stewart say to get a nice display tulips should be planted EVERY year..and I thought aha!..that's why my tulips don't bloom..I think some are reliable bloomers but most aren't..after learning this I've never planted tulips..just crocus and daffodils..sounds like a lot of work to remove the bulbs..I wouldn't bother..hope someone with better bulb knowledge comments..

@nicholsworth: I don’t think I would bother planting every year, I’m too lazy for that! I started planting 5 years ago, and they’ve come back every year except for that specific location where we cut their foliage soon after they were done blooming. The ones in my garden beds have done very well, and are even multiplying!

mazerolm..I wouldn't plant every year either..my experience with tulips was different than yours..they declined rather than multiplying..I've heard that not letting the foliage "ripen" could weaken them..

Very pretty display, mazerolm. Would have been very interesting to see the situation three years later. My experience with tulips and daffodils is that there's a steady reduction in the survivorship (especially with tulips) over years. The species tulips have done better over time than the regular ones. I believe this agrees with what you tend to read on line. At the same time, there are other consideration: here, vole predation. Daffodils have the advantage (over tulips and crocuses) of being poisonous. On the other hand, bulbs need good drainage while dormant and with our soil and watering, notably daffodil bulbs tend to eventually rot.

Don't know about the survivorship in your situation, but I'd guess that giving the bulbs a few years to recover isn't likely to improver the situation noticeably. Re digging bulbs out: sporadic surviving bloomers within a large (perennial?) bed may not matter. On the other hand, I find that the leaves of especially tulips, which bloomed last year, tend to be large and unattractive and interfere with the viewing of the spring blooming perennials. This is, however, really only a problem if the perennial bed is small.

put your after pic. in a reply ...

do you have nothing better to do.. than dig up 1500 under-perfoming bulbs.. crikey.. lol ... let them die.. this would be a job you gave a kid you were disciplining.. lol.. im sure you have better things to do ...

and if any should revive themselves.. all the power to them ...

ken

oh good idea, ken_adrian! I think it worked! Here’s my « after », from the opposite side. If the tulips will never bloom again, I’d like to remove them and plant more this Fall.

Tulips are way to big to plant under a lawn because the foliage would be a visible mess for far too long! When you removed the lawn, did bulbs get removed with the grass? I’d guess that might account for some of their absence now.... I would have thought that those sorts that you planted should come back for you. It might be worth digging around a bit to see what you find. If you don’t find healthy bulbs, you’d need to replant. I have never dug tulips up and planted new ones each year. Some of mine have been in the ground - and multiplying - for almost 20 years. A neighbour has large volumes of tulips that come back every year - she got them cheap from RBG when they sell off the bulbs they dig up each year.

I think that between removing the grass, mulching and leaving the foliage to ripen you should see them come back nicely. Not as strong as when they were first planted, but you seem to have a good garden for bulbs.

If you really get ambitious you can divide and replant, but I prefer to do that accidentally when planting and replanting other things.

The new bed looks great!

Digging up tulips because they don’t bloom sounds like crazy work to me. What would you do with them after you get them? Replant? I can’t see how this would make them rejuvenate themselves - I’ve lost faith in tulips.

Plant them in a bed, let them bloom and wither, and you might get blooms next year. After that, probably not. That’s my experience anyway. Tulips are disposable and simply fade away.

I would just plant more as if the previous ones weren’t there. No need to dig up the previous ones since either they will eventually Peter out completely or will come back. Digging up that many bulbs would be a hassle.

Thank you all for your feedback! I know it sounds crazy to go to the trouble of removing them, but our winters are very long. We have snow from mid-October to end of April. Tulips bring us much joy at the beginning of Spring, that’s why I don’t mind doing it. Because once I plant some more, they will come back every year like they do in my other beds. That being said, it sounds like there’s a chance that they will bloom again now that the conditions are better, so I think I’ll wait a couple of years to see what happens, and report back here, in case you’re interested.

Thanks again!!

I'm not following your reasoning. Leaving the old bulbs doesn't preclude planting new ones does it? I don't think anyone has said not to plant fresh bulbs. Just not to make work by removing the old ones. It's not necessary.

@floral: the only place in this garden bed where I want bulbs is where the existing ones are. I can’t think of a way that will allow me to plant new ones and not damage the existing ones. Maybe my technique is lacking?

I have a very hard time believing that tulip bulbs that have been mowed down three years in a row are going to make much of a comeback. Even those few hybrids that do tend to perennialize better than others. There is a finite lifespan to their productivity and the fact that you only got mostly foliage this season should be an indicator of that. IME, once that happens they will rarely, if ever, bloom again.

I'd just replant and call it good.

Yes. Just stick the new bulbs in and ignore the old. They'll be split into tiny bulblets by now anyway. I can't believe they're so thickly planted there isn't an inch of space to pop in a new one. I've never dug up an old bulb to plant a new one. Just bung them in on top, beside or even under the old ones.

I have good luck with Darwin Hybrids lasting, but Triumphs do NOT tend to last long in my area. If you’ve had success with them in other areas of your garden then keep on, but I thought I’d throw that out there.

What a lovely garden spot.

Do you remember which tulips have done best for you for returning year after year? I have tried a few Darwins including Apricot and Pink Impression and some mixes but they usually only return for one or two years at most. I would love to have some tulips that return as reliably as daffodils.

Lily flowering tulip Ballad returned for 4 years and seemed to be going strong, then it just failed to show up last year. A few species also just do not last. I imagine the heavy clay soil here doesn't help either!

I agree, I doubt they'll make another appearance worth much...

I've given up on tulips in the gardens. My yard is small, and real estate in the gardens is too precious to waste on slimy old tulip leaves replenishing the old bulbs that probably won't flower that spectacularly again. This year, I put them all in pots. My front step was gorgeous, and I was able to rotate the pots in and out as they came into and finished their successive blooms. As soon as they finished, I moved them next to the potting shed in the back yard.

It was a lot of work planting the pots in the ground and digging them out again, but my gardens look much better without the leaves waiting to be cleaned up.

Just a thought...

My most vigorous returning tulips are Ivory Floradale. Originally planted in the fall of 2001 they have returned every year since and are as large as ever and the clumps keep expanding. The soil here is heavy clay. They were planted at least 6" deep. The Dasystemon Tarda tulips and turkestanica tulips were planted the year before and also come back every year. They are small 'botanical tulips' and I let them set seed and spread that way if they wish. The Ivory Floradale get their flower stalks cut down to the base as soon as the petals start dropping, so they never set seed. The three of them make good companions - The Ivory Floradale start out yellow and fade to creamy white. The Dasystemon Tarda are vibrant yellow with white and bloom when the Ivory Floradale is in its yellow phase. The turkestanica does not look particularly tulip-like, blooms a bit late and its creamy white flowers go well with almost anything, including the white phase of Ivory Floradale. We have other tulips that come back each year, including Queen of the Night and Angelique, which are not as vigorous but still pop up regularly in places. Orange Emperor has been a reliable returner but not very vigorous. And then there are other unknown ones - the squirrel-planted ones! - that are vigorous returners but I don't know their names. In my densely planted gardens where tulips are mixed in with other plants (rather than being in a dedicated space of their own) the dying foliage doesn't bother me too much. Cutting down the flower stalk really helps minimize the visibility of the mess I think.