TULIPS - do they really come back?

[Anonymous]

I bought tulips in the fall and now they've come and gone. I planted them because i expected them to be perrenials, but now i'm hearing that i can expect 1-2 years max unless i dig them up?
Thoughts? I don't know if i have the energy to dig and store every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I bought tulips in the fall and now they've come and gone. I planted them because i expected them to be perrenials, but now i'm hearing that i can expect 1-2 years max unless i dig them up?
Thoughts? I don't know if i have the energy to dig and store every year.

For tulips, my second-year survival rate (i.e., re-blooming) is about 40% and that was the same from second year to third year. Our soil is well drained and all bulb-plants receive a solid eight hours of sunlight; both factors in that 40% survival rate. I would never dig them up; I plant about 50 bulbs of tulips every fall.

My survival rate for daffodils is about 90% and, for hyacinth, 75%. Giant allium is 100%.

[Anonymous]

Some last, some don't.

[Anonymous]

My first year rate is about 30% (mostly squirrels), but second third... tends to be a lot better

[Anonymous]

My rates of return are higher then PP but it depends on the type. When I buy Darwin hybrid ones - they can come up for 4-5 years decreasing at about 20% a year - if the squirrels don't eat them! The normal ones come back at about 30% the next year and then just a few for the third year.

If you buy naturalizing daffodils - they will spread. But not aggressively. Snowdrops are good too as well as alliums. Hyacinths do not spread but mine have been coming back for 10 years now at about 90% - some squirrel damage.

If you buy Kauffman tulips - the wild kind - they will spread and come back if they are happy.

Muscari is hit and miss. I find the generic blue ones come back and spread. The pale pink ones for some reason...last one season.

Bluebells are another good one - come back and spread.

[Anonymous]

I have had mine the last three years but I also let the leaves yellow.

[Anonymous]

Daffodils are much better.

[Anonymous]

Mine come back each spring. I don’t do anything to them. Just had year 8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have had mine the last three years but I also let the leaves yellow.

This is key. Ours were planted about 4 years ago.

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/hurt-tulip-bulb-cut-down-dying-leaves-77610.html

[Anonymous]

I have a patch of tulips that came with my house. I’ve lived here 20 years and they come up faithfully each spring, just the simple red and yellow variety.

[Anonymous]

I have a rogue yellow tulip that was here when we bought our house 34 years ago and has come back every year. It’s in terrible rocky clay soil close to the foundation on a southwest corner that gets almost full sun. At one point I tried to move it and gave up after I dug down about a foot and still hadn’t reached the bulb. It’s made me wonder if the key to growing tulips here might be to plant them really deep. This year it had two blooms but I saw a jerk squirrel bite one off and leave it on the ground. I wouldn’t have cared if he’d actually eaten it!

[Anonymous]

Some varieties are much better than others. "Angelique" is lovely but usually won't even make two years. I had a variety called "Celebration" that came back beautifully for years.

[Anonymous]

Darwin hybrid tulips come back every year, other tulips are basically annuals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Darwin hybrid tulips come back every year, other tulips are basically annuals.

True in DC climate and DC soil; not true in some other places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a rogue yellow tulip that was here when we bought our house 34 years ago and has come back every year. It’s in terrible rocky clay soil close to the foundation on a southwest corner that gets almost full sun. At one point I tried to move it and gave up after I dug down about a foot and still hadn’t reached the bulb. It’s made me wonder if the key to growing tulips here might be to plant them really deep. This year it had two blooms but I saw a jerk squirrel bite one off and leave it on the ground. I wouldn’t have cared if he’d actually eaten it!

You are exactly right - they like to be planted super deep, and they like well drained soil in full sun.