Sorry, got too excited posting! :) I found a good site on mixing perennials with tulips and think I've got a place to start. Thanks anyhow.

What website did you find, maybe I could learn something from it also.

Jilly, don't be afraid to ask questions here. Sometimes it takes a while to get answers, but someone usually comes along and can help.

To be honest, I started planting perennials, then added tulips and other fall/spring flowering bulbs in between the perennials. Of course you can do this the other way around as well.

Remember that tulips need to be dug up and divided every few years with just the larger bulbs being replanted. The smaller bulbs can be grown out in a holding bed, till they reach flowering size....usually takes a year or two..depending on the size you start with. If you don't divide your tulips every few years....they will multiply to the point they crowd themselves out and you won't see anything but a few leaves in the spring. Some tulips do well for many years like this.....others with have to be replaced anyway after a few years.

Happy Gardening,
Sierra

I grow my tulips in circles of about 6 to 8 bulbs and in the spring when I'm setting out my annuals I plant 3 or 4 petunias around them. I don't plant petunias anyplace else in the beds the tulips are growing in. The petunias fill in nicely over where the tulips are and in the fall if I have to dig up and replant my tulips I know exactly where they are

I like to plant annuals such as pansies just as the tulips are poking through. The colours of pansies seem to extend the 'bloom' effect and not to mention distract the eye from the yellowing foliage of the tulips. I also like to layer my tulips, one atop each other and mixing tulips(early, mid and late bloomers) for continous blooms and a bouquet effect. Plus the top most layer contains a heavy dose of daffodils to foil squirrels. The one thing I try to avoid is having tulips look like soldiers standing in attention. So no single row of tulips.

I like to plant my alliums next to the tulips too and plant other perennials that will eventually cover up the dying foliage. In my yard, that's salvia blue midnight, echinacea, perennial cornflower, sedum autumn joy.

Being that you have a mugo pine which means water will be an issue, get a plant with deep roots for the back part. It must also be drought tolerant. Echinacea is an example but there are others. Sedums are drought tolerant too.

Wow thanks guys, this was a huge help!!