I have never done it and doubt if it would really help.

IMHO to get tulips to reliably return and even multiply, one must purchase Perennial Tulips, that have been bred to return for several seasons.

Why Perennial Tulips are Better
Search Leads to Bulbs With Reliable Repeat

and

Perennial Tulips

You might also read through some of these threads that discuss Perennial Tulips

Sue

Thanks, I'll check out the links.
I have read over the years a bit about tulips and their native habitat. I know they like a change to a baking dry climate such as in their native Caucasus region which I certainly don't experience in the Mid-Atlantic. Supposedly the old garden varieties not bred for florist trade and the Darwins are more perennial than other types offered. I do try to withhold water after bloom, but I'm out of luck if we have a rainier season. Also, I do plant 8-10 inches deep in a sunny area as recommended though I forgot to add any fertilizer this year.
Today was the first I had read about digging them up and storing to keep them totally dry and thought it would be worth a try.

Yes...definitely worth a try. I'd be interested in hearing how it works for you, since we are in a similar zone.

Sue

Well I have half done this....I pull after flowering and toss them in the compost heap and replant with new ones I buy. You mention disappointment the second year and I think spring is just not the time of year to be disappointed with the garden. Its a matter of a little money and adjusting your thinking to accept that tulips are really better annuals then perennials.

Tulips are different from daffodils.

Unless the daffodils are smitten with hungry grubs or speared by the gardener, they'll sit and clump up and flower until they're overcrowded.

Tulips grow to flowering size, do their thing, then produce daughter bulbs which then have to grow to flowering size. If you have a clump of species tulips you can see this going on season by season.

If they aren't deep enough they produce 'dropper' roots and pull themselves further into the ground. It's a fascinating structure to see.

If you want a guaranteed display of a particular tulip then your best bet is to buy fresh each year to be sure of uniform flowering and creating the picture you had in mind.

If you have one of 'those' gardens (like mine!), where the leaves are as welcome as the flowers, then you can dig up and replant each year. Or you can leave them in place.

Generally, in this zone and place, I do not fridge my bulbs. Not any of them. They resent it to death. In zones with baking summers I can see it could be necessary to persuade the bulbs that it's time to put out the starter roots before winter sets in. A little shiver down the spine, so to speak.

For me, one tulip I can count on to return without being lifted is 'Spring Green'. And T violacaea. Most of the others are taken out, left so the leaves fall, then put into net bags and hung in a cool shaded place. They stay there until I replant in May and June (your November-December). However, there are always daughter bulbs that go unremarked until they show up the following spring. If you don't like that, and digging is not an option, then you can use a Roundup wiper wand on the leaf to remove the problem.

You said you were considering digging and refrigeration because the variety you wanted was not available, not to save money. Here where the chilling is not enough we have to dig and refrigerate if we want to have them bloom again next year. The best I have been able to save is about one third to bloom next year. I have found that bulbs less than 12cm in size are not reliable bloomers. If I wanted to save those smaller than that and were willing to grow them on for another year with no bloom, to reach blooming size, I could save them all. If you are fond of this variety and want the extra work to save them, then go ahead. Al

I'm one of those weird people who dig tulips and replant them, same process as vetivert8. I wait till the leaves start to yellow, dig them up, lay them out to dry, clean and seperate out the larger bulbs, store dry over the summer and plant again in fall.... just as much work as dahlias or cannas, just a shorter season.
If they grew well in the spring most come back fine the next year. If you replant the smaller bulbs they should reach blooming size in a year or two.

The darwin hybrids are easiest even without the replanting.

Apricot Beauties are the ones to get. I planted them in my California Home 7 years ago and they have come back every year. Of course I had to put them in a raised bed with wire on the bottom to keep the gophers from eating them and a fence around them to keep the deer from eating them. The flowers are just as big as the first year. In fact the flower seems to grow bigger even after I cut them off and put them in water.

Chere

Chere I am glad to hear of your success in naturalizing tulips in California. Because California is such a large state with many climates and elevations it would help to know where in California you garden. Al

I am in the foot hills of CA just down the road from Oakhurst, CA which is the little town you pass through if you take highway 41 to Yosemite National Park.

Chere

4 years ago I laid out 2 new gardens in the fall. Since the tulips had all petered out in my old garden, I knew the potential for any new tulips planted to do the same. But I wanted something first thing in the spring for these new gardens, since it would be a while before I could get perennials in. I didnÂt buy expensive varieties, just a range of colors and bloom times. The soon-to-be-perennial bed was planted with a variety, from single early, Darwins, single late, double, greigii. The "deciduous shade" garden was planted with only greigii and kaufmania varieties. 4 years later most of the perennial bed tulips are either gone, have tiny or malformed flowers, or have very straggly leaves only. The only ones that still look pretty good, though the flowers are a bit smaller, are the greigii. I donÂt mind too much about the die-out because now that garden is full of perennials.

In the deciduous shade garden (which is a much drier and well drained garden on a slight slope), both the greigii and kaufmania tulips have not only survived but multiplied. It is probably due to a combination of varieties that are longer lived, and the drier conditions.

Hi,
One tulip grows and muliplies for me: Darwin or Darwin Hybrid (don't know which) called 'Daydream'. Its 5 years old and going strong. Its in full sun on a South facing gentle slope and the only consideration it got was a shovel full of manure at time of planting. Wish I can find other perennial tulips that are so dependable and beautiful. By the way, I live between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. zone 6B