leave the leaves, but cut off the stem just below the flower calyx so the plant doesn't waste energy on seed production.

You should cut back the stems of the flowers of both daffodils and tulips right after blooms fade, to prevent the plants from setting seeds, which takes energy from the bulb. You must leave the foliage, which the plant needs to replenish energy in the bulb.

As for tulips that come back - as PP mentioned, the best chances are with Darwin Hybrids and species tulips. Also, make sure they are in a sunny and very well-drained spot. Tulips like to be baked in the summer, not stewed.

Anonymous wrote:So what is the right kind of tulips around here?

I have more or less given up on tulips and have instead planted every possible variety of daffodil, so that I have a very long period of daffodil blooms.

Try Darwin Hybrid tulips - they tend to have a higher chance of coming back. Also species (or wild) tulips will even spread. However, they aren't the big showy ones - but very cute. All my tulips come back - but some in less numbers and they definitely do not naturalize like daffodils, grape hyacinth (Muscari) or snowdrops. I find that hyacinths and alium are pretty reliable about coming back though.

The fancier varieties of tulips are less hardy.
We have some red and yellow tulips that came with the house and were probably planted decades ago. They come up like clockwork each spring.

mjsmith wrote:we plant about 40K tulips each year and dig them up, toss them and plant new ones each year. you just never know how good they will come back.

You plant FORTY THOUSAND tulips each year, and then dig them all up? What on earth?

Anonymous wrote:Leave the daffodils alone until the leaves are all brown, then you can cut or pull them off. They need the leaves to make food to store in the bulb to rebloom. Tulips never rebloom the following year for me, so I just yank them after they bloom.

Really? My tulips have been blooming every year since I planted them three years ago. I also have tulips planted by the previous owners that still continue to bloom.

best time to plant plant tulips and daff is in the fall. Many needs a distinct "cooling period" to bloom well.

Daffodils will perrenialize and come back year after year. But as others have states, do not remove the stems until the turn. I tend to trim them now so i can plant some annuals around them so it dosn't look as bad.

Many of your species tulips will come back year after as will some of the others, but the mroe common tulips will generally only last a season or two. depending on ravensous the local wildlife is. we plant about 40K tulips each year and dig them up, toss them and plant new ones each year. you just never know how good they will come back.

So what is the right kind of tulips around here?

I have more or less given up on tulips and have instead planted every possible variety of daffodil, so that I have a very long period of daffodil blooms.

Anonymous wrote:Leave the daffodils alone until the leaves are all brown, then you can cut or pull them off. They need the leaves to make food to store in the bulb to rebloom. Tulips never rebloom the following year for me, so I just yank them after they bloom.

You are planting the wrong kind of tulips.

Op here...thank you!

Be glad the deer didn't eat the tops off like they did mine!

I understand that you're supposed to wait until they turn yellow. (I know it's hard!) They are now soaking up sunlight to create energy to make next year's flowers.

You're supposed to let them die off naturally.

Leave the daffodils alone until the leaves are all brown, then you can cut or pull them off. They need the leaves to make food to store in the bulb to rebloom. Tulips never rebloom the following year for me, so I just yank them after they bloom.

Tulips and daffodils. I put them in the ground in the spring. They flowered...now what? They look scraggly and I'm tempted to cut them at their base. What should I do?