Over-summered tulip bulbs

[Primrose]

What do you all do with your tulip bulbs once they've finished flowering? Last spring I took them out of the patio containers and stored them in large pots with a little earth to over-summer in a shady place. I've now taken out the geraniums and replanted them in the containers as they were beginning to form roots but am not anticipating a great display next spring as I never have much luck with keeping tulips. Can I do anything to improve my chances of success? It seems such a waste to buy new bulbs every autumn.

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
If you allow your Tulips to complete their growth pattern them they are stored, as the ones you buy,
they should be fine year after year. I really feel that you should have individual tubs for Tulips and Geraniums and that the Tulips should be well fed during the season and you would then have no problems.
JB.

[Monika]

Sorry I am late with a reply, but we have been away (in sunny Grange-over-Sands): I never succeed with the larger tulips for a second year and buy them new, but the species tulips, fosteriana and multi-headed ones seem to be o.k. I grow them in containers and feed them well after flowering and only dig them up when the foliage has completely died back, then keep them in paper bags in the cool shed. In the second year they are planted into the open ground and new ones go into the containers. Occasionally they come up for a second and third year in the open ground but they tend to deteriorate.