I have many dozens of tulips in my garden, front and back. This is the first year that none of them have bloomed. I would like to know why.
Hello:
Thank you for your question. It is fairly common that tulips stop blooming after only a few years, or even after one year. There are a few reasons this may be so:
1. older varieties of tulips and species tulips rebloom much more reliably than the new hybrid tulips
2. tulips need phosphorous to bloom well. When you look at different fertilizers and soil additives, they have 3 numbers on the bag and phosphorous is the middle number.
3. tulips like to be planted in full sun with good drainage.
4. plant tulips to the correct depth – they should be planted 3X deeper than they are tall.
5. Let the tulip leaves die back naturally. The leaves are how the plant stores enough energy to form the flower bulb. Since tulips have a hard enough time forming flower bulbs, they need all the energy they can get. It also helps to snip off faded tulip blossoms as soon as you can. Tulips that try to produce seeds will have less energy for forming next years flower.
6. It may happen that the tulips will not re-bloom no matter what you do. Many people treat them as annuals.