As most of you know who have followed this blog over the years, I love tulips. There is nothing like the great masses of color they can lend to a garden in spring. But this year I decided, actually I decided last fall, that I wouldn’t plant so many tulips. I wanted to see which tulips returned. Certainly I didn’t get a great big showing, tulips are terribly unreliable that way, but I almost appreciated them more as they returned in small clusters or just  solo. Some that hadn’t bloom in three years suddenly bloomed again. And other came back gang-busters.

The following are the ones that returned in my home garden or my clients’ gardens this spring. As I said: many happy returns.

I planted ‘Fostery King’ last year and was surprised how vigorously they returned. Even increasing in number.

A handul of the 50  ‘Curly Sue’ tulips I planted last year came back.

This single ‘ Barcelona’ has been returning for 4 or 5 years now.

I planted the lovely ‘Apricot Impression’ by the hundreds over 4 years ago. Spontaneously two returned and bloomed this spring.

Of the 100 ‘Gander’ tulips I planted last year about 25 rebloomed, and this is in a very wet border in a client’s garden.

In a very sunny well-drained border ‘Jaap Groot’ has been consistently returning for 3 years.

‘Negrita’ returns with some regularity, too.

This lone ‘ Banja Luka’ tulip has bloomed every year for the passed 8 in my home garden. Why the other 7 I planted with it all died I don’t really understand.

I am a big fan of species tulips. I always have high hopes for them to naturalize in our dry and stony raised drive. A site hat many should thrive in. I am sorry to say I have met with many disappointments. Except for this one, Tulipa urumiensis. Not only did it return, it also increased in number and did not succumb to any of the fungal diseases that plague my other species tulips.

Tulipa clusiana ‘Lady Jane’ also bloomed again this year after taking a break last year.

Tulipa clusiana var. chrysantha has also been a good repeat bloomer and very charming among the early emerging grasses in a client’s sunny border.

Tulipa clusiana ‘Peppermint Stick’ is by far doing the best. On the recommendation of Brent Heath of Brent and Becky’s Bulbs I planted a few bulbs in the grass of our cherry orchard. They are doing splendid. No signs of fungal problems like other tulips on the property, increasing in number and in size. I will definitely add more this fall.

As I said, I can even be happy with just one flower, when a special tulip returns. Tulipa turkestanica should be a reliable rebloomer and colonizer for us, but here in the Snoqualmie Valley it is a bit of a laggard. Still when this flower opened in the first week of March I was ecstatic.

Tulipa humilis ‘Odalisque’ has been reblooming for years, though fails to increase.

Tulipa sylvestris returns both at home and in my client’s garden. I grow it in full sun and full shade and it takes both with easy. I just wish it would stand up better to our spring rains.

Tulips whittallii, by far my favorite tulip of any kind, is a good naturalizer, especially if somewhat “abused”. It seems to do best in a dry sunny spot and doesn’t mind the competition of weed roots in my home garden, inadvertently mimicing the mountain meadows of Western Turkey, where it grows natively.