Beautiful flowers and house. I don't know the answer to your question but I would like to know the answer also.

I don't think the water is your main problem. Maybe it isn't helping the tulips, but the daffodils don't mind some moist soil in summer.

Look for other reasons first, like the foliage getting shaded in spring, root competition from other plants, etc.

How do you "lose" the bulbs? Do they come back weak with few or no flowers? Do they disappear completely? What kind of soil do you have? Just for comparison, my Cannas are spindly and pathetic, partly because my soil drains too fast and partly because I lack sun and heat, while tulips thrive.

I heard this advice about the watering at a talk about daffodils yesterday. What do you think about her recommendation to water bulbs more in the fall?
My soil is very well-draining, the beds where I keep planting the bulbs get 6 hours of sun and probably more until the huge elm tree leafs out (this fall, however, I'm putting them in the front yard where they get sun from dawn 'til dusk!), I put chickenwire over them to keep the squirrels at bay, I cleared whole areas for them at the edges of the beds so I don't think competition was a problem, and last fall I planted things like species tulips and crocuses and allium moly which I thought would be sure to come up. A very, very few things came up, very unhappy-looking, and the other hundred or so never came up at all. I use a winter mulch of oak leaves which I remove promptly in the spring. I measured the depths I was planting the various bulbs. Other clues about LAST year's bulb fiasco could be: there was an early freeze with no snow cover last winter and it was a really rainy spring. I am very, very successful at growing other things, including summer "bulbs" like Crocosmia. I would sure like to solve this problem!

I've never lived in Minnesota so don't take me too literally. Daffodils need good amounts of water in autumn, right through the winter except when frozen, and really like quite a lot of water in spring. If your soil is baked dry down to a foot then you might need to give them extra water in autumn to get them off to a good start. Tulips need less water overall but still need a fair amount during the growing period. They will put out roots in autumn as soon as the soil starts to cool and they get some water.

I never provide extra water to any spring bulbs but then they get plenty naturally during the winter months and the soil doesn't start to dry out until they are long gone in summer.

What a lovely garden! The orange flowers are spectacular against the color of your house, and everything looks lush, healthy and well-cared for.

The one question I had when reading this thread: are you getting top-size bulbs from reliable suppliers? If you are, and you have sharply draining soil, I'd suspect the early freeze, or maybe late freezes in the spring. Do you get much of a spring freeze-thaw cycle? That can do in most alliums and species tulips. I'd say mulch, mulch, mulch, if you don't already do so--can't hurt.

When the small spring bulbs at the front edges of my garden finish and all of their foliage dies back, I bed out my indoor succulents. I have a small collection of mostly aloes, agaves, echeverias and odd little crassulas. These go right out of their pots and into the beds, where they flourish all summer with no extra water. I plants them fairly closely, so they look kind of like gigantic hens & chicks (Sempervivum). They're certainly exotic, although I'm not sure they're the kind of tropical you're looking for. But some, especially among the aloes and the echeverias, have very showy orange-coral blossoms in the summer. I put my "black" aeoniums out there, too, for height and color contrast. I take them in around now, when nights get into the low 40'sF, the fall rains start, and the Colchicum blooms and Muscari foliage begin to grow through the succulents.

I guess one true annual to try might be portulaca. Or you could overplant with perennial sedums.

Please post when you decide what to plant, and good luck--
Amanda

Zone 4! Brrrrrrrr! I don't think I could give you any good advice, but I do mulch my bulbs a lot - not particularly for winter, (in your area snow cover does the job), but for spring because we get such fluctuating temps. It could be 25 degrees one night, and then 65 degrees the next. It is the freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw that gets a lot of our bulbs and blooms.

I always buy bales of straw in October for Halloween. Then I use that to mulch my bulbs. Works!

Susan

For a drought-tolerant annual, nothing beats portaluca (moss rose). It will reseed itself nicely (but not go crazy--at least, it hasn't taken over my garden yet), and it will look nice all summer. In fact, "plant moss rose over your tulips!" was one of the pieces of advice in the latest Bulb Gazette from Old House Gardens...and those guys know bulbs.

I live in zone four and can be less. I think you might consider raised beds. Daffs and Tulips will rot if the soil isn't well drained and I mean well drained. I plant right over the tops of them with annuals or have plants that hide them. They don't care and I water a lot and they don't care. I leave the folliage on to strengthen the bulbs and feed them sugar. In the North you should feed them bone meal or bulb meal at planting time to help establish strong roots and feed them again each fall and even in the spring again if you wish. You can use a high middle number fertilizer during the summer if you wish. Are you possibly using too much nitrogen? I plant allium in a protected area and it can take a bit of drought. Some are thirty five years old and have seen really bad weather. I do water them in the fall if it isn't moist out. All bulbs including lilies need water but they don't want to stand in it. Daffodils will rot in too moist of soil but with drainage you can water everyday if you wish. Hope some of this helps.

With all of everybody's advice, I'm starting to think that this year's bulb planting will be a success! I am now thinking that the major problem might be drainage. My soil is quite sandy and well-drained, BUT where I had most of the bulbs planted was essentially as though I'd planted them in a damp ditch. Here, look:
{{gwi:27392}}
The middle of the beds are higher than these edges and so all the melted snow and spring rain must run to the stone border (which is wrapped in landscaping fabric underground) and pool there. Perennials don't seem to mind this, although I have lost a few heucheras and geums planted at the edges...... Anyway, that's my latest theory! I'm going to go dig up two sections of lawn and put in some good soil and make two beds just for bulbs. Tomorrow. Thanks again!

Yay! My bulbs are blooming! Also, several of the bulbs that I planted TWO falls ago have come up and bloomed. How can this be?

NOW I'm wondering what drought-tolerant, sun-loving, preferably orange or red PERENNIALS to plant with them and I'm being advised to plant daylilies. What do you do, plant daylilies (or whatever) between groups of bulbs? Surely not right on top of them? Another suggestion was Crocosmia 'Lucifer'. Why won't the roots of the perennials disturb or compete with the bulbs?

Clearly, I just don't "get" bulbs! My bulbs are tulips, narcissus, allium, fritillaria, and maybe next year eremurus.

The botanical gardens who plant daylilies plant them beside (near) the daffodil bulbs, not on top of them. I estimate from the photos, a foot of space between the clumps of daylilies and the clumps of daffodils once they fill in.

I experimented last fall with planting daffodils in little diagonal rows like this: / / / / / / / / / and then putting crocosmia bulbs in between the rows of daffodils and overseeding the whole thing with corn poppies. Alternanthera cuttings are in place to edge the bed.

The daffodils were a success, the poppies are blooming now and the crocomia have thick and healthy foliage in anticipation of summer. Heavy handed planting of crocosmia bulbs may have been a mistake. They tend to multiply (the species) so rapidly, they may form a mass the daffodils can't push through when it's time for them to come up. We'll see. I'm always relocating crocosmia.

Nell

Crocosmia,

I have also had the same problem as you in that bulbs do better in the center of my beds than along the edges. Mine are all interplanted with perennials and even shrubs.
I think that this provides them better drainage. I have learned to live with the occasional (well actually fairly frequent) slicing of the bulbs by my shovel.

My daffodils are planted in circles or semi-circles, or behind many of my daylilies, especially those that are seen from some distance. The daylilies do a great job of hiding the dying daffodil foliage. I try to leave some room for growth of the daylilies, but in any case the daylilies seem totally unperturbed by the bulbs, even though I am unlikely to give them the foot of space :~) that at botanical garden might - I garden in a small area & everything is crammed.

Some orange daylilies I like are Backdraft (orange with red eye), Egyptian Spice (amber orange blend) Orange Velvet, Orange Vols, & Tuscawilla Tiger. There are lots more available!

Most of my daffodils, however, are planted around in my red daylily/shrub bed at the back of my yard. In my small orange daylily bed I used a different method that you might find interesting. I use minor bulbs all in shades of blue. Smaller bulbs like Ipheon, Scilla, Chionodoxa, Iris reticulata & such can go much closer to other plantings and only need to be planted 3-4 inches deep. I actually planted all the bulbs when the bed was first made and the daylilies had not been chosen yet, poked them in with my finger. I then partially buried upside down nursery pots in the bed to mark the daylily spots and let the bed rest until the following spring when my daylilies arrived in the mail. It was a sheet of blue in the spring.

Many minor bulbs can also go in shade areas around hostas for example which come up very late. If the shade is from deciduous trees, these bulbs can easily finish their cycle, and get enough nourishment to bloom and spread around, before the trees are leafed out. So look around at all those areas too and plant more bulbs! Don't overlook miniature daffodils they can be tucked in here and there and everywhere and the foliage disappears so much faster than full-size daf foliage.

Please see my pictures in the thread Tulips return. Over the tulips in the first picture, I usually plant portulaca as someone in this thread mentioned, or some other low water annual. I am always afraid I'll do something stupid and these perennial tulips (still going strong in 4th spring) won't come back for me. Most tulips are strictly annuals in my garden.

I also have the tulip area edged in Blue Fescue Grass, and use the small blue Sedum sieboldiana and blue Myrtle spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites) & other dry plants like Geum coccineum borisii (bright orange which you would really like) which do not thrive in my dense wet clay, except in this raised gravel bed. Blue and orange is one of my favorite combinations!

And while there aren't many cold zone early spring bulbs in orange, there are plenty of blue, whites & yellows. Tried a pretty in-between size daffodil this year called Bantam that you might like. It's a very neat & compact bright yellow daffodil with a ruffled orange edge on the cup. There are many others with this color, but the size is more unique. Oh, and there are lots of hardy lilies that come in orange, can't forget them. Anyway have fun!

Sorry this is so long, I get carried away when I get enthused about things. LOL