Why did my tulips not come back this year?

Tulips evolved in the mountains of central Asia, where the summer is hot and bone dry and the dormant bulb bakes. A British summer is neither, so the bulb sits in cool damp soil, splits into several small bulbs instead of one large one, and the following spring produces a clump of leaves with no flower. This is normal rather than a failure, and it is a large part of why the bulb trade treats tulips as an annual.

Step by step

1. Check whether you got leaves and no flowers, or nothing at all.Leaves without flowers means the bulb split into small non-flowering offsets, or it was too shallow or too starved. Nothing at all means it rotted, was eaten, or was planted too late to root. The two have different answers.
2. Plant deeper than the packet suggests.At least 150mm and ideally 200 to 250mm of soil above the bulb. Deep planting keeps the bulb cooler and much more even in temperature, discourages splitting into offsets, and markedly improves the chance of a return. This is the single most effective change.
3. Plant late — November or even early December.Tulips are the exception to the autumn bulb rule. Late planting into cold soil reduces the risk of tulip fire, a fungal disease that produces scorched distorted leaves, and does not harm flowering.
4. Make sure the drainage is good.Tulips rot in wet soil more readily than most bulbs. On heavy clay, plant on a layer of grit, raise the bed, or grow them in pots.
5. Deadhead as soon as the flowers go over, but leave the leaves.Snap the seed pod off so the plant is not spending energy on seed. Then leave every leaf standing until it has yellowed and collapsed, which takes about six weeks. The leaves are what rebuild the bulb.
6. Feed with a high-potash liquid feed while the leaves are green.Two or three feeds after flowering, while the foliage is still working. This does more for next year's flower than anything you can do in autumn.
7. Choose types that actually perennialise if you want them back.Darwin hybrids are the most reliable returners among the large tulips. Species tulips — Tulipa sylvestris, tarda, turkestanica, clusiana and the kaufmanniana and greigii types — naturalise well and increase over years. Elaborate parrot, fringed and double varieties are the least likely to return.
8. Lift and store if your soil is wet and you want to keep the bulbs.Once the foliage has died down completely, lift the bulbs, dry them off, discard anything soft or mouldy, and store them somewhere dry and airy over the summer. Replant in late autumn.
9. Or plant them in pots and treat them as annuals.For a guaranteed display, plant fresh bulbs in pots each autumn and compost or plant out the used ones. It is what most public gardens do, and it is a legitimate decision rather than an admission of defeat.
10. Rule out the other causes if nothing appeared at all.Squirrels dig up newly planted bulbs; mice and voles eat them in the ground; waterlogging rots them; and a bulb planted very late in a hard winter may not root. Check for holes and disturbance before assuming it was the tulips' nature.

Tips

• Tulips planted among perennials that grow up over them are shaded and crowded just as the foliage needs light, which reduces the chance of a return further.
• Tulip fire produces scorched, twisted, brown-spotted leaves and distorted flowers. Remove and bin affected plants including the bulb, and do not plant tulips in the same ground for at least three years.
• Bulbs that came back smaller and flowerless are still alive — plant them at the back of a border or in rough grass and they may build up again over a few years.
• Species tulips are a different proposition entirely. Planted in a sunny, sharply drained spot they come back and spread for decades.

Common mistakes

• Planting tulips at the same shallow depth as crocus — Shallow tulips warm and cool rapidly, split into small offsets, and produce leaves without flowers the following spring.
• Cutting or tying the leaves after flowering — The leaves are rebuilding the bulb for next year. Removing them early guarantees a blind bulb.
• Planting in September with the daffodils — Tulips planted early into warm soil are more susceptible to tulip fire. November is the correct month.
• Assuming an expensive variety must be perennial — The most elaborate varieties are usually the least likely to return. Darwin hybrids and species tulips are the reliable ones.

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