Hi Christine--I'm interested in your tulips. Check my trade list and see if you're interested in a trade--thanks--Shadyside Here is a link that might be useful: My trade list

Wrong, all tulips are true perennials. Some are more vigorous than others and all are adapted to mediterranean type climates rather than the continental climate found in many US gardens. Additionally, tulips do not thrive in rich garden soil with summer irrigation and fertilising. Just because Linda can't grow them well doesn't mean you won't be able to, although the eastern seaboard generally isn't good for tulips. Here are some darwin hybrid tulips growing wild in a hedgerow near my house. The old red Apeldoorn tulips are some of the best and you've found that already. Some modern darwin hybrids are not so good, other hybrids even less so. The only way you will know is by trying. Provide drainage, don't pour water on them all summer, and don't over-fertilise. Add limestone gravel if your soil is acid. The Emperor tulips are hybrids and selected forms of the wild species Tulipa fosteriana. Like all the other small species tulips, it lasts longer than the bigger hybrids.

You overestimate my dilligence. This is the first year I watered the daffs or muscari, and only because I read that they should be kept moist during growing season, they did perk up some. The soil maybe improving because I switched to Sweet Peet and organic compost as mulch which will break down into the soil faster than the hardwood used previously. I do not fertilize, and I only water the grass when I can remember, not the flower beds. It would still be under a deciduous tree - the Maple, but it will not have the same drainage because the bed is totally flat and I'm certain it's all clay. It seems I like this tulip even more now, just my type of flower- it thrives on total neglect. Unfortunately it probably will not survive another spray of chemical vegetation killer that I use to keep the weeds at bay on my slope. If I'm going to save it, it must move someplace off the slope. I think I found another tulip, but it is just the broad leaf - it never flowered at all. Thanks for the comments. Hopefully I can find another suitable location.

One of my neighbors found some purple darwin tulips called "Best Purple" at a local nursery. They were packaged and since we have had such good luck with other darwins, she bought some for me. They have been in my yard for at least 4 years and have not only come back but multiplied. We have tried to find more but have hever found any more "Best Purple" darwin tulips. Anyone else ever seen this variety? Bonnie