What eats Tulips?
Tulips are edible bulbs.
Squirrels will dig them up and eat them.
Mice and any other kind of rodent will too. They love them.
I believe even deer will eat them.

To form a protective barrier around your Tulips, plant Daffodils closely around them. Daffodils are poisonous, so they "help" ward off rodents. Tulips don't mind being crowded, so plant them closely. Even the largest sized Tulips can be planted quite closely - up to 40 large bulbs to a square yard. Plant daffodils close together and next to your tulips like soldiers guarding the queen.

Make sure you mulch. Mulching keeps the soil uniformly frozen all winter which helps protect bulbs from severe cold in winter, and partial thaws and refreezes in later winter and early spring (Soil heaving). In spring, the mulch helps keep the soil colder, so they won't start growing too early and get their heads nipped off by late freezes. It also improved the quality of the soil and bulbs really reward you for giving them good soil. Top dress with bulb fertilizer in Spring.

After they finish flowering, snip off the top inch or two of each flower stalk to prevent them from going to seed and to encourage them to grow bigger bulbs. Do not cut off the green leaves. Let plant foliage die back naturally and dry before removing.

I'm believe that the color you have is what you were sent. Beware of photo illustrations for ANY flowering bulb or plant. They are often "doctored" to have more intense colors than they actually have.

~Annie

Hmm, doctoring photos of flowers sound like fraud. Lesson learned!

Hmm, well, except for deer, which we have deer fenced out, we have a lot of all of those things. C'est la vie. We have a gardener who does a great job tending the beds, they get better care than I could ever give.

Thanks for the daffodil tip. So that's why they are so ubiquitous!

You can also plant your tulips in a protective wire box, or put wire mesh under the mulch or first inch of soil. The mesh needs to be large enough to allow the plant to grow through, but fine enough to keep critters from getting to the bulbs.

Martha