Looks like a tulip

Tulip. It's very easy to forget where you planted the bulbs.

But that means I would have planted some bulbs there but I didn’t. Maybe the previous owners planted bulbs? Can tulips be dormant for 5 years and then suddenly grow again?

Strange things happen all the time. Maybe a squirrel stole your neighbor's tulip bulbs. Something planted tulip bulbs at some point.

Yep, tulips.

Do squirrels actually dig up bulbs and bury them somewhere else? If so, it dug up 5 of them and buried them fairly close together. I do have squirrels digging in my perennial beds all the time.

Yes they certainly like to move bulbs around. They move Lilium in my garden. I tell them if they want to take part they should get some design sense. Enjoy your tulips.

odds are they dig them up .. and then find they arent interested.. and leave them there ...

if you actually have tree rats that like to rearrange your gardens.. you might be onto something ...

tulips do not lay dormant for years on end ... but babe tulips.. might only put out leaves for the first few years... which of course wither and fade by summer ... disappear ... so maybe you werent paying attention ... or maybe the hosta covered them ...

if you want tulips.. you buy bulbs to plant in fall .. you do not grow them from seed.. unless you have 3 to 5 years to wait for the babe to grow a bulb big enough to flower ...

since you are MI... did you know that every year the tulips of holland tulip festival are dug and replaced for the show .. go figure ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=holland+mi+tulip+festival&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

If I saw this in our garden I wouldnt recognize it as more often than not tulips dont grow that tall as they are invariably eaten to the ground asap :(.