Tulipa sylvestris has been blooming and spreading gently at the historic site where I work for a century. It's small but mighty.

a big part of the equation is soil .. and drainage.. and how the bulb can prosper when the plant is dormant ...

at the old house.. with nice MI topsoil... we had them live for what seemed like forever ..

move to sand ... and they just disappear after a year or 3 ... i suspect it was lack of moisture at bulb depth in july and august in my MI sand ...

and i dont think certain tulips would have done any better .. regardless ...

so i just quit growing them ... kind of expensive to buy and plant them as annuals ...

ken

I have one red tulip in a corner in front of my house. I did a group planting of 10 many years ago and the squirrels stole every bulb but one. It still comes back every Spring. I have no idea the type. I did a group planting of 50 bulbs around my tree and I had three or four come up. I think it was the wet soil from the winter along with what the squirrels did not steal. Same year.

They just are a wonderful sight in Spring. I love the mass plantings people have. They are too much work for me. I would have to hire security around the clock in Fall from planting until the ground is frozen solid. There are too many city squirrels on my block. Good luck and if someone chimes in with a good one maybe I will try again and cover the area with some chicken wire. More work.. lol

What a nice story! Thanks. Chris

I had great success with tulips in Moscow. Every year they came back bigger, healthier, and more floriferous. In Maine, not so much. It's slightly warmer than in Moscow, butbthere are lot more critters, sandier soil. In short, I suspect your probkem is not the cultivar, but something else.

That could be. What's confusing is, a few varieties are very perennial for me, others effectively annual. But they're in the same beds. Thanks for writing! Chris

Patti, I've had the same issue here with squirrels eating my tulip bulbs and that's why I buy the discounted bulbs wherever I can find them. Here's one that they didn't get!!

One trick I learned is not to fertilize when I plant them -- the scent helps squirrels find the bulbs. I fertilize when they start growth the next spring. It doesn't solve the problem but it helps.

I never fertilize mine and just treat them as annuals. We have SO many squirrels here that I think they are literally watching exactly where I'm planting the tulips, so that they can come back and dig them up! LOL. They love to dig up the bulbs and leave them right outside the planting hole! Ugh!! Where do you garden, Chris?

I'm watching this thread hoping someone will answer with the foolproof bulb or the foolproof method. My tulips just don't perennialize, or perennialize well, so I treat them as annuals - a few in a pot each year. I'm thoroughly enjoying my little pot on the patio, but scratch my head when I drive down the street and see gorgeous swaths of tulips in the front yards of my neighbors. I'm going to have to note more carefully which houses have them and see if they have them next spring! Maybe they don't have any better luck than I do, lol.

I did try some species and griegii tulips and some kaufmanniana tulips, and they did come back more reliably for a few years, but even they petered out over time.

I read a quote somewhere about tulips, saying there was no problem to getting them to bloom every year in your garden.... if your garden is in the Himalayan foothills. LOL. Maybe that's the problem. But the Dutch might have something to say about that!

:)
Dee

'Apricot Beauty'. I've had the tulip coming back for a good 15 years now. I finally got around to digging it up and separating bulbs to move them and now I have them in two places. I plan to buy more in the fall.

There are other low growing tulips with markings on the foliage, but I'm not a fan. Those are the griegii and kaufmanniana tulips. Apricot Beauty just looks like a regular tulip.

Thank you! I'll get some this fall too.

I've had excellent luck with Emperor Tulips returning for several years. White Emperor is especially pretty, but the red and the orange are also terrific.

Anecdotally, the other thing that seems to help is a location that doesn't get too irrigated all summer long.

I also really love species tulips and for me these multiply every year. Persian Pearl is my favorite. It opens wide on a sunny day and has a bright yellow star in the middle. They are just blooming now (or they were, before today's snow, but they'll bounce right back!).

Yes, Persian Pearl has been persistent for me too. It doesn't multiply, but it does stick around. I have it near a retaining wall, good drainage and dry in the summer. Sounds like I should try some other species. THanks!

Today's snow????? Yikes, I had to double-check to make sure this was a post from today lol. I'm always in awe of folks like you Karin, who garden in those colder zones!

Sadly, for me, Apricot Beauty did not last more than two years. Too bad, as it is a lovely tulip. Glad to see others have better luck!

:)
Dee

I do think persistence is very dependent on site and microclimate. Sort of like roses. When I lived in coastal southern California, roses never got any disease at all. Here in the northeast, same varieties can be much less reliable.

Dee, I wonder if I had success because the spot it was in was sunny then became more cloudy.

Could be PM2. I'm really not at all an attentive gardener lol, and I should be. If I paid more attention I would know why certain things live or die and what to do to help them succeed. But I don't always pay attention and although I always think I'll remember, I don't always. (Finally started keeping a garden journal - now just need to remember to write it in lol!)

I do know in certain parts of my yard I have a lot of ledge, and bulbs don't always do well, I think because of poor drainage. Of course that's the sunniest part of my yard; I think the rest for the most part is too shady.

I haven't done much with bulbs for the last few years (honestly I hate planting them!) but last year bought some and thoroughly enjoyed the show this spring, so perhaps I'll try a few more this coming fall. And maybe I'll try again with tulips.

:)
Dee

I have some red tulips that my husband bought for me years ago as a potted plant, come up every year. I don't know the name. They are in full sun.

Tulip 'Barcelona' has bloomed reliably for the last ten plus years growing along my front walk. The soil here is a fertile sandy loam and the spot they are growing in is very dry during the summer months. They have grown and multiplied for so long in the same ground that some of them have sported, instead of magenta some of them are white with pink flushes.

I think it is the genetics of the tulip plus the growing conditions that make some hybrid tulips come back year after year.

Thank you! I'll try some. Yours are beautiful. Chris

@jeb those are awesome. I will have to remember that type. Do you fill in that area with something as the foliage dies back?

The tulips are underplanted with Geranium Vision Purple and there are some clumps of Asiatic Lilies that bloom there later in the season. Because it is so dry here I sometimes plant portulaca or other succulent type plants for summer interest. It really doesn't bother me when the tulip foliage turns brown because it happens fairly quickly after they have finished flowering - by June it is mostly dried up and gone.

Thanks for the nice compliments!