Garden

[DiAnne]

On 4/15/2014 JustJazzmom said:

I use bulbs as the first part of my 'garden show' here. Once they are done, the perennials I have planted with them come out and cover the leaves. Wait till leaves turn brown in the fall before removing the leaves. The bulbs need the green leaves to make food for the subsequent flower in the following year.

I do that also but with the tulips in pots (mostly because of the squirrels and because I want to see them from the family room) and I put the daffodils in the ground. I love the white Thalia daffodils and have them planted in front yard.

[esmerelda]

Thanks, everyone. Good information and ideas. I've heard first year flowers, second year leaves, third year nothing. That has kind of been my experience. Did someone mention theirs moved? How would they do that?

[JustJazzmom]

On 4/15/2014 esmerelda said: Thanks, everyone. Good information and ideas. I've heard first year flowers, second year leaves, third year nothing. That has kind of been my experience. Did someone mention theirs moved? How would they do that?

Squirrels can move them or just the ground heaving and moving them.

The ones I mentioned are best found in the fall in nurseries or mail order catalogs. Species tulips are lower to the ground and smaller in cup size than the tulips we usually see. Darwins will come back every year for me.

I have Don Quijote tulips which are Triumph series and very good at coming back every year.

[colliemom4]

I love tulips!

[Heather1715]

I have a friend who is a horticulturist/landscaper, and he informed me that tulips do have a lifespan and eventually die off. So depending where your bulbs came from and how young they were (which you would probably never know) that could be some of the problem.

I had some "parrot" tulips (tie-dyed) that I picked up at the grocery store and researched myself what to do with them over winter. I had them dug up and in my basement, but Alan informed me that was wrong and to keep them in the ground. So far, they've come back and this is 3 years now.

Also, he told me that tulips do not multiply. At the end of the season, I was going to WalMart and buying the marked down tulips and planting them throughout my garden in hopes that I would have more next season, which was also wrong. Now I have rogue tulips here and there. He suggested planting an odd number of bulbs together.

I live in town and the squirrels do dig around, but I seem to have many of mine left.

[JustJazzmom]

On 4/16/2014 Heather1715 said:

I have a friend who is a horticulturist/landscaper, and he informed me that tulips do have a lifespan and eventually die off. So depending where your bulbs came from and how young they were (which you would probably never know) that could be some of the problem.

I had some "parrot" tulips (tie-dyed) that I picked up at the grocery store and researched myself what to do with them over winter. I had them dug up and in my basement, but Alan informed me that was wrong and to keep them in the ground. So far, they've come back and this is 3 years now.

Also, he told me that tulips do not multiply. At the end of the season, I was going to WalMart and buying the marked down tulips and planting them throughout my garden in hopes that I would have more next season, which was also wrong. Now I have rogue tulips here and there. He suggested planting an odd number of bulbs together.

I live in town and the squirrels do dig around, but I seem to have many of mine left.

The term is 'naturalize'-- daffodils naturalize as do Spanish bluebells--Hyacinthoides hispanica.

[terrier3]

I stick with daffodils.

I have learned over the years that the tulips the squirrels don't get in the fall are finished off by the bunnies in the spring! The bunnies always seem to love the most unusual and most expensive tulips.

Daffodils and alliums work great and repel the critters.

[pinkskates4]

I love tulips - but unfortunately so do the deer.

One year, I planted them in the middle of the daffodils and they lasted for awhile - until the deer figured out they were there and stomped the daffodils while eating the tulips - so I had neither that year.

[ValuSkr]

Hybrid tulips - the tall ones in a great variety of colors - don't return reliably. Please get species tulips and you won't be disappointed. They're shorter and less showy, but on the positive side don't have big floppy leaves.