Are they in partial shade, perhaps? Tulips need lots of sun in order to produce blooms. I had some bulbs that were in an area that got shadier each year because of trees overhead getting bigger. No blooms, 1 or 2 leaves. So I moved them (in the spring, not the fall, in order to make the bulbs grow stronger over the summer) and they did bloom the following spring. And thereafter.

Carol

I have read that many tulips are bred for the cut flower market, and so are not as likely to produce bloom over years. I try to buy tulip bulbs that the catalog comments on as being more likely to be perennial. Both Brent and Becky's Bulbs (link below) and John Scheepers (www.johnscheepers.com/) have notes to this effect in the printed catalogs, though I am not sure what kind of info they include online. Brent and Becky's catalog notes that they regard Darwin Hybrids "as the longest term perennial tulip group." Fosteriana, some of the Kaufmanniana and species tulips are pretty good perennials in my experience also. I have some tulips that have come back and bloomed for 5 years, but realistically I'm happy if the critters haven't eaten them for just a few seasons. I also have found that they last longest if they are buried deeply and are in a really well-drained area in the summer when they are dormant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brent and Becky's Bulbs

One addition:
I kind of view tulips as an indulgence or as frosting on the cake. If I want many years of reliable bloom I plant daffodils or alliums.

And also a warm welcome. Hope that you continue to visit and post.

I treat tulips as annuals. I buy them in late fall when they go on sale. Plant them then, and then throw them on the compost pile when they have finished blooming. They just aren't reliable as perennials.

Steve

Tulips like sun and they don't like wet soil.

I second nhbabs and steve-mass. I also treat my tulips as annuals. I buy about $30-50 worth every fall from Christmas Tree Shops or Walmart. And I count it a bonus if I get a second season. Then there is the whole issue of keeping the deer from eating them when they do survive. I had something this year that came by, bit off the tulips, but spit the flower out. So I ended up with tulip blossoms on the ground in one section of the garden.

I really should take Steve's advice and pull the scrawny foliage left from some 3 year old bulbs and pop them in the compost pile.

I do the same thing as Pixie Lou and hit Christmas Tree Shops when they are on sale. I haven't found tulips to be perennial at all for me in past years, although I did get a tip from the Cottage Garden forum last year that you should cut the bloom off as soon as it is finished so it doesn't go to seed. I did this last year and did have quite a batch of tulips come back this year. I was very surprised.

Pixie Lou, my dad once told me that his mom told him that squirrels and other rodents will snip off the blooms because there is a "kernel" that they like to eat. This came up in conversation with my dad after I caught chipmunks shimmying up my asiatic lilies and biting off the buds. It seemd they were doing that same thing, so maybe there is something to that.

I have this problem as well. One of my neighbors recons I either planted too deep or put the bulbs in upside down.

My tulips, bought with flowers on in some big box store, have never ever bloomed a second year. Plus, the deer and maybe rabbits eat them. I've given up.

@Urbex Bootleg Glitch, your neighbor is wrong. Deeper makes tulips more likely to be perennial than shallow planting. And the tulips’ ability to perennialize depends most on its genetics rather than anything also. They will grow fine if planted upside down; the stem emerges and does a 180 to grow upward.