Hi everyone. I am relatively new to gardening as evident by the question I am about to ask. So here goes. I was on a website and I was looking at several different tulip varieites. Under the individual tulip descritions where they inform you how tall the flower will be, bloom time, etc. I saw Multiplies, and Naturalizes. Under both of these I saw a few where they said NO to both, multiplies and nautrilizes. OK, here's so here's my question. I thought all bulbs multipliy. If they don't how does one make more of that particular tulip? Are some actually grown from seed? I'm quit confused about this, can someone address this for me as I obviously have allot to learn about bulbs! I bought quit a fewtulips and daffodils, etc. as I thought this was about the easiest type of flowers to grow, now.......not so sure!

And embarressed newbie to gardening!.....Betty

Could you please give the link of the website you are speaking about?

It's tulip.com and double click on the tulip called Chicago. I appreciate you taking the time to address my question. Here you go. http://www.tulips.com/

Here is a link directly to the tulip Betty is talking about. Sorry, my tulip knowledge could fit on the head of a pin, so I can't help you much. Hopefully, one of the more experienced bulb growers will be along to help.

http://www.tulips.com/products...

Parrots tulips are not hybrids but tulips which have muted. The multiplicqation is very slow. If you plant a bulb now you will be able to multiply a parrot bulb in 25 years from now, separating the new bulbs.
May be the 'more experienced bulb growers' who will be along to help will tell you more.
I am growing Parrots Betty and they return each year but i do not dig them out so I did not check the bulbs.

CLUSIANA said:May be the 'more experienced bulb growers' who will be along to help will tell you more.

CLUSIANA, I get the feeling what I wrote upset you? I hope you realize I was not meaning you were not experienced. I was speaking of my own inexperience. When I clicked on Ohladybug's link, it did not go to the tulip she mentioned, but to the main page if the company. I was only trying to help by giving a link to the particular tulip she mentioned. I am sorry.

Juli you did not upset me at all. As English is not my mother tongue and as I can be lazy I took your sentence. Betty raised a very interesting matter (not many people know about that and I have the same case with one tulip, wondering as Betty does how some tulips can multiply when they are not settting any seed and when you do not see any new bulbs. Gardening forum is the best place for exchanging knowledge and I will be glad to have somebody else opinion. No kidding, just very curious to know more about that. May I know who is the specialist you are speaking about? We do learn everyday and I love that Juli. You know the way you write when you do not have a full control of a language leads to misunderstanding. I feel embarassed about that. Most of the time do not write much for that reason. .

Well, no need to be embarrased! You are doing fine! English is my language, but I did not take a lot of structured English classes in school. I ALWAYS feel inadequate because I do not speak or write with "proper" English. It is one thing about myself I wish to improve! I actually bought a book called Grammar For Dummies, and I could not understand what they were talking about!

This forum is full of knowledgeable people. I did not have a particular person in mind.

We will get along very well then Juli. Grammar is grammer. You will improve as you are willing to.
Thank you.

Clusiana, your English is just fine to me as well!!! I just appreciate the info you provided. I really didn't mean to pick one that was a parrot tulip, there are others on the site as well that aren't parrots that are also marked NO for multipucation and naturalizing. Juli had a great idea for me and I think I will follow through with that on Monday. She suggested that I give them a call at tulip.com and ask them directly. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say. If you would like I will share their answer(s) with the forum here. Thanks again for your help!!!!

My experience with tulips,

Appledorn and Darwin are the best ones to live long and divide, and continue to produce flowers
Michigan has a better climate for tulips than Indiana.When I lived there several gardeners I knew were always giving away tulips because they multiplied so well.Like perennials they need to be divided to keep flowering well.

I have not found the fancy tulips to flower more than 2 or 3 years here in Indiana, before just disappearing.
By fancy I mean the peony type , parrots ,and some of the new colors.

Currently trying the species type, no conclusive data yet

Oh yes one more thing : rodents love to eat tulips.

ohladybug said:Clusiana, your English is just fine to me as well!!! I just appreciate the info you provided. I really didn't mean to pick one that was a parrot tulip, there are others on the site as well that aren't parrots that are also marked NO for multipucation and naturalizing. Juli had a great idea for me and I think I will follow through with that on Monday. She suggested that I give them a call at tulip.com and ask them directly. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say. If you would like I will share their answer(s) with the forum here. Thanks again for your help!!!!

Great idea ohladybug! Please let us know about this call
Thank you and pls do not hesitate to let me know if I write baloney. I will appreciate and never be upset.

This article was pretty interesting, about the different types of tulips and how they split.
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Bul...

Also found this good article here on ATP:
http://garden.org/articles/vie...

I don't have much luck getting tulips to return here in Illinois. I get a good display the first spring, maybe a few isolated blooms here and there the second year, and then nothing. I do have some of the species tulips, and they return reliably. They are tiny, though, and very low-growing, almost more like a crocus than what most people thing of as a tulip. They make great little pops of color along the borders of my beds, though!

(edited to add the second link!)

Agree with Cinda's observation regarding rodents eatting tulip bulbs.
I think that may be the major cause of tulips not returning or "disappearing".
They are delicious to most all critters, whereas Daffodils, on the other hand, are distasteful to them, so they survive and multiply.

Last year lost 250 newly planted tulips in a bed and later found the bed had voles.
Put in a vole control system and was able to grow everything there with no losses all summer.
Will try a few tulips there this year and see how they do.

Yikes, that represents a lot of lost time and money! Just imagining how long it would take me to plant 250 bulbs, and how frustrated I would be to find that they'd been snack food for some rodent. I think I lost a few lilies to voles last year; I found holes near where they'd been planted, and they didn't come back. That was aggravating; they were expensive, and I only got to enjoy them one year!

Vole control system is great and you leave it in place.

So what is that Vole control system.

Cinda, It is a bait system, that kills the voles
www.volecontrol.com/

Thanks
cant use it here I have cats that regularly catch and eat the rodents.

Oh, Cinda, did you read the website? I think this won't harm your pets....