This is the kind of micromanaging I don't understand. How is flowers growing in your lawn a bad thing? It's pretty. Why do people think a uniform field f homogenous green is the best possible result? Tulips rarely spread in the United States...if yours do, you are really lucky. Anyway, you can dig up the tulips or use an herbicide that only kills broadleaf plants. Or you can mow your lawn short early every Spring...the tulips will use up their stored energy making leaves that just get cut down and die out in a few years. Or you can irrigate your lawn every summer...tulips don't like wet ewnvironments.

I think if you cut off the foliage now they will die off, Especially with lawn watering thru summer. Ought to rot them:-)

Can you use a hand trowel, slide it down beside the tulip, pull back the grass and pull out the bulb, laying the grass back down? Don't actually dig a big hole. Just carefully life the sod, slide it out and lay it flat again. Your sod shouldn't have a very deep root system yet. I would be nervous about putting chemicals on them that might leave my beautiful green grass with polka dot yellow circles of deadness.

just keep mowing

Xiangirl, I thought about painting Roundup or some other chemical directly onto the leaves, but I think some will invariably get onto the grass and kill it, especially with rain in the forecast. I wanted to avoid digging, but your idea might be best.

AviaStar, I'm in Minnesota and the lawn is just coming out of winter dormancy. I won't need to mow for several weeks yet. Technically supposed to be keeping off the lawn right now to avoid compaction.

I could just cut them right at ground level to keep them from absorbing energy from the sun. I guess I'd have to do this for multiple years before they eventually fizzle out?

Any thoughts on how deep the bulbs might be? I assume my wife planted them an inch or two down at one point. The sodders were supposed to add a 1/2" to 1" of topsoil and then then sod. Is it really possible they could be coming up from 4" to 5" underground?

Probably the most asked about bulb is the tulip. How can I have them come back?

Most advice is to chuck them and start with new ones as most types will not return. They die out easily. Cutting off the foliage now will deprive them of storing any nutrients and your new lawn will not suffer disturbance. Summer water rots these bulbs.

Grass is also a plant that you can ... plant.

Dig up some of the grass along with some of the soil/dirt. Put it aside. Did deep into the soil to get the tulip bulb (a bulb planter would help minimize the width of the hole).

After getting the bulb out, backfill with dirt, then plant the grass on top. In a short time, the spot should be OK again, especially if you are taking care of it as an expensive investment that you did.

Just yank the leaves up. Nearly all the energy is in the foliage right now and pulling it off will likely exhaust the bulb. If they have the energy to grow again next spring, yank them again and it should kill them..... save your digging energy for dandelions.

Digging a plug of grass to remove tulip bulbs, then putting it back won't hurt the grass at all, the deeper the plug, the better. This is how it's able to be moved around as sheets of sod. This is also how they move the hole around on putting greens.

To be specific, chop around a tulip or clump of them with shovel, very deeply. Pull the 'plug' out with the shovel without breaking it up though the bottom part without roots in it might crumble back into the hole, that's OK. The tulips will either be left at the bottom, sticking up, or if they come up with the plug, you can pull them out from the bottom, leaving the top of the grass unmolested. Either way, replace plug of grass gently, to make sure there's not air under it, but don't smush/compact it. You'll never be able to see that this happened. If it happens to get very dry within the few weeks afterward, that area would be the first to get too dry, so keep an eye on whether or not you might need to water it. Chopping the tulips off at the grass level before digging would probably make this easier.

I've excavated thousands of bulbs from grass without altering the appearance of the grass. If you're nervous because the sod is new, you could try mowing the tulips this year, then excavate if necessary next year. The digging should be pretty easy right now, since the sod is so new, at least at the first few inches.

Also thinking, if your wife originally added the tulips to the yard, maybe she would be interested in doing this, or at least have an opinion about what to do? You may have already discussed it with her, IDK. I would want the tulips 'back' though, as a personal opinion. They would also make a nice gift if you know anyone with a yard that needs more spring flowers. You're absolutely right about how it should be how you want it though, it's your yard.

I agree with both sides. I had new sod installed last fall and forgot about the tulips. I LOVE tulips and would like to keep them in the yard; however, it looks pretty bad to have an immaculate yard, minus the off limits flower area area where my husband has been instructed to mow around. Makes for a funny looking higher grass area of lawn.

I am currently waiting for all of them to bloom, then we will mow it and dig up the bulbs to be stored for transplanting into beds in the Fall.

You need to wait for the bulb foliage to die off before mowing if you want them to rebloom. At least 6 weeks. Alternatively move them straight after flowering, leaves and all. There is no need to store them before replanting.

Thanks so much for the info. :)

I wish I had that problem, but I live in zone 10b. I don't think I can grow them here.