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.

If your tulips spontaneously came back it probably has more to do with last year's season than the season they came back in. Bulbs cannot disappear and re-emerge after several years, they must produce leaves every year. But what they can do is shrink down to the extent that they stop blooming, and grow as foliage-only, in which case you are less likely to notice them. Then if conditions change, the bulbs can re-grow large enough to bloom over a couple seasons. That growth probably happened due to a summer, just after blooming season, that was just right for their foliage to produce a larger bulb before going dormant. It could mean lots of water, it could mean lots of sun, it could mean fewer hot days to singe the foliage, or it could mean a tree that grew enough shade that the bulbs kept their leaves out longer into the summer without being cooked into dormancy. Then, after the great year was over, the tulips waited 9 months and returned in the spring and this time they were large enough to bloom.

I garden on heavy clay soil (constantly amended with compost and ground, composted bark) and tulips aren't perennial for me. I'm going to try planting them very deep this time and see if it helps (thanks for the reminder, Susan), but I have to acknowledge that they'll probably just be bedding plants for me. They need really sharp drainage. Another problem with growing them as perennials is that they often fall pray to diseases and virus that distorts the leaves and sometimes prevents flowering.

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