They thrive, return and multiply in my warm climate - zone 10. Average to poor soil, plenty of sun, no summer water. They are just starting to sprout now.

Perfect! I can do average to poor soil but maybe not zone 10 too easily Lol lol. Actually im surprised it survives such warm winters.

im going to try it in the warmest corner of the garden and hope it doesnt come up too early.

My favorite 'botanical' tulips are T. turkestanica. They grow in various places in the front bed and driveway border in full sun, heavy clay soil, and whatever water Nature provides. Most people don't recognize them as tulips! They will seed around and form clumps. They have been growing there for nearly 20 years I think. I do have a few T. saxatilis too but they have never done as well as the turkestanica.

A picture from April 24 2020:

May 2 2015:

I have had trouble keeping botanical tulips but I suspect it's because something is eating them.

IME most of the botanical tulips want some "food" in the soil, dry-ish summers and not too soggy soil in winter.

I think they do survive strong frost as long as they dont thaw in between.

I attended a lecture once on bulbs in their nativa habitat,

some Tulipa and Allium among them

the person emphasized that the vegetation looked poorly or straggeling but that one should bare in mind that it is very fertile soil under/ among bits and pieces of rocks.

in a real gravel bed bulbs do starve.

I did use Tulipa saxatilis Lilac wonder for a planting design in a public space.

some disappered but I think it is mainly those that get more shade from near by buildings.

we lost some Eremurus as well in the more shady spots

Others pulled trhough,

we used a gritty substrate which is quite rich

so, it is good drainage and some "calories"

warm z7

that is probably April, about 2019

Woody, I'm glad they're doing so well for you! I'm going to keep an eye out for turkestanica, it looks nice in a clump and re-seeders are always welcome in this garden. I've had tulipa clusiana for years and it's even surviving in a lawn, although the rabbits are slowly killing it off as they chew it a bit each year.

Socalgal your photo has me crossing my fingers they settle in. I love the bright centers with the violet-pink? tips. Maybe I'll put a few in the warm and dry spot as well as a few between some blue fescue clumps... I think they'll look great there even if they're less likely to survive.

linaria the garden looks great. I suspect it has something of interest in every season and suspect the drainage is pretty good considering Eremurus manages to survive anywhere... here I've never had any luck. Good soil fertility in an area where it's all rocky and scrubby actually makes a good amount of sense. I don't know how those areas got and keep the fertility, but many fritillaria and tulips seem to really need more nutrition than than you would think when looking around their native haunts.

I shall see if they return after the first year. If they do but look sickly I'll try and give them a good dose of fertilizer and see if that doesn't pep them up.

Thanks for the thoughts... and the photos as well. This has me thinking of all kinds of 'other' tulips I could kill... I mean 'try'.