It would help me if they would not exaggerate on the zones.

I really need more tulips that come back for me year after year so that I don't have to replant everywhere. Species are one of the ways I am going to go. Not to give up my modern tulips but in addition too them.

I have made some decisions on the species, I know where I will put them around the garden. So I have decided on --
Wilsonia
bakeri Lilac Wonder
Little Beauty
Little Princess
humilis violacea (yellow base that Scheepers carries)
humilis Eastern Star
humilis Persian Pearl
linifolia 'Red Hunter'
orphanidea whittallii
Taco clusiana Kaufmanniana hybrid
Ice Stick clusiana Kaufmanniana hybrid
clusiana straight species
clusiana var.Tinka
clusiana var. chrysantha
clusiana var. stellata
clusiana Lady Jane
clusiana Peppermint Stick


You will notice that my list is strong on clusianas. I find the pictures just stunning and would love to have a variety in my own garden.

All these I have listed and decided on because I have sources of them, I can just order them for fall. And I will do that!

I have already planted vvedenskyi Tangerine Beauty and humilis violacea black base.

Great work, Rita.

I'm learning and learning is a major part of what makes gardening such fun.

I am learning as I go also.

The tulips are really starting to shine out in the front yard.


The early tulips in back of the two daylily rows are almost ready to open. Just a few of the dark purple ones(I have a color mix) have opened today. It really looks great when they bloom.


And the first of the Firespray tulip is open also. Most of them are still in bud though.


Closeup of a tulip grouping out there.


Ok, now moving on to the backyard. The bed of Greigii tulips with Sundance most prominent as usual.


this one is now blooming in that bed also.


Closeup of sundance

Whoa! We can see your almost 5,000 bulbs! What a show. And I'm sure, more to come. It's gorgeous. I'm sure you are looking and saying, yes, it was worth all the work!!!

I like the stacked stone wall,too, Rita.

It is always worth the work when the bulbs bloom each spring. Stunningly pretty if I do say so myself. I go out and visit my bulbs many times a day.

lovemyhouse said:I like the stacked stone wall,too, Rita.

I took that first picture so you folks could all see what it looks like from the street. I do love that stacked stone wall. But now you can see why it took me years and years and years to create my gardens. I had to start by creating my gardenbeds!

I just did my first bulb order of the year. 825 Tulips from Colorblends.

Ordered bulbs JUST NOW!!!! I ordered 825 tulips from Colorblends. Part of them will be perrenial tulips, part not. 25 Scarlet Baby, 100 Humilis Violacea, 100 Rex Ray, 200 Red Hunter all to be perennial. The 100 Polka Dotsdarwin mix might come up again (or not). 100 Bloomsday, 100 Three Queens, 100 Parrot Blend are replacements for exactly the same thing already in ground this year and will be planted in the same spots. Otherwise I would not have them again.

What confuses me is, my tulips always come back...I've had them for years.

You are lucky.

Really? I just thought they always did that? And they multiply. Not like the daffy a, but they do.

No, you are lucky. They don't always do that. In fact mostly they don't.

Arlene, most of the time tulips act like annuals here because they do not get a good cold spell. That is why people dig them up every year and put them into the refrigerator for about 8 weeks, then replant them. It is called 'forcing'. I love tulips but that is too much work for me!!
Do you know what kind they are??? You say they are multiplying? Wow, no fizz-out. Good for you!

I'd like to know, as well. Might be able to try some here since we are in the same zone.

I've been as confused as AB about the term 'perennial' paired with tulips -- but I'm just south of the Skagit Valley which is a huge tulip growing area so I guess I am fortunate to have the right conditions for them. That said, I have very few tulips in my own beds, I suppose because I can just drive 10 minutes up the road and see masses of them when they are blooming (now). Pretty spectacular, as are Rita's.

Me too.

The reasons for short life expectancy may also seem unclear.
e.g. we have a hot humid summer and we water our perennial beds as other plants seem to need.

These bulbs are an adaption (dormancy) to hot dry summers.

Mostly they are ones I got from my mother and I'm sure she had them for years. So they came from around Traverse City, Mi. To eastern shore Maryland and now to Atlanta. Last year only a few bloomed but we really had no winter to speak of. This year they are still blooming. So I don't know what to say. I just always figured that was normal.