tadasana, Unlike members of the daffodil family, tulips and crocuses are not poisonous, so can be eaten by little mammals, and often are. There are types of tulips that are said to be more perrenial though and you can find them at Breck's. I planted a single white tulip bulb almost 20 years ago and a few years ago had a clump of 10 flowers without ever moving it. It was planted in improved soil in a raised bed. Then a couple years ago it only put up two bloomstalks. Again last spring, only 2. I don't know if the gophers or mice finally found it or if part of the bulbs just died out.

Another class of bulbs that are poisonous are the Lycras, both squamigera and radiata. The former is also called Naked Ladies or Surprise Lilies and they bloom in August. The latter are Red Spider Lilies and they bloom in mid-to late September. If you want Naked Ladies, you can send me $10.00 for postage and I will send you a dozen. They are very big bulbs and multiply quickly here. They smell wonderful and are so fresh in August when so little is blooming.

Thanks so much for the info!

I neglected to say that one of the main reason tulips are not reliably perrenial here is they just can't handle our climate and aren't too fond of our soil conditions. But there are types that do better if they are given good drainage and improved soil. Also helps to plant them where the soil is shaded in the summer. Crocuses do better, the little critters are their main problem. Grape hyacinths do well, but can also be eaten.

I mostly grow daffodils, alliums and some of Dorothy's Naked Ladies because nothing eats those bulbs and they all come back reliably.

I have had some of the species tulips survive for 4 or 5 years, but my soil in general doesn't drain well enough for them so they get wiped out in a really wet year. I have a small handful of species tulips---maybe 3 or 4 plants---that, if they survived this year and bloom next spring, will be in about their 11th or 12th year here. The species tulips are shorter and smaller and not as showy as the regular commercially cultivated ones, but they're great survivors. Mine are in an area where they get no irrigation at all and have survived previous drought years. I am not so sure they've survived this one.

I've linked a website that has some species tulips so you can see what they look like and read their descriptions. Many different companies sell them, but I've never found any locally, only in catalogs or on-line.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Species Tulips

I'm late to this forum, but many tulips and other bulbs do well year after year in Oklahoma. My favorite place to buy bulbs is from vanengelen.com.
The following are bulbs either I, or my family members have had success with:
tulip spryng
tulip mondial
tulip cool crystal
tulip apricot parrot
tulip Dordogne
tulip red impression
tulip parade
tulip hakuun
tulip golden parade
tulip cash
bearded iris
grape hyacinth

I will add that all bulbs (minus a couple, such as grape hyacinth) are toxic to dogs

Here is a link that might be useful: Pin of Oklahoma tulip cool crystal bloom

Voles eat the tulips here even if they did come back. My experience with tulips is they don't last. I planted I think it is narcissus Salome when I moved here in 1978. They bloom every year. The biggest problem is to plant them where you won't mow them until after the foliage has died down. You see them in pastures where cattle mow the grass and weeds down and leave the daffodils alone. I really love the small narcissus like I think tete' a tete' and other short ones. They are among my flowers and shrubs. When it rains a lots I have a stream that runs through my yard. Some of those small narcissus where blooming nicely in the woods washed there in a flood. I just dug them up last week and planted them in the yard. Crocus are nice but so small they can get buried by mulch in a bed. Crocus work well around crepe myrtle which leaf out late and offer protection for gardeners forgetting there are bulbs underground. I have been caught stealing bulbs from old home sites. I don't do that anymore but to me nothing leaves behind a legacy garden wise like daffodils. The people who planted those years ago may be gone and the houses are gone, the yellow flowers bloom every spring. By the way I got permission when I could locate the owners and consider thinning them actually not that bad of a crime.

The short ones are easier to deal with after they are done blooming because the foliage is short and not as noticeable as that of the larger ones.

So pretty, Helen. I love those too. Mine are finished now.

A few years ago my wife turned the flower beds over to me because she was unable to care for them. After surgery and some healing time she started re-claiming "Her" beds. I had forgotten about her planting flowers in the bed I had turned into a sweet potato bed, my tiller had forgotten also. I would like to say that I am living proof that flowers need to be planted around something that the husband cant get the tiller or mower over.

Larry

Helen, I love the short ones too and for the same reason.

We have one lone daffodil still in bloom. All the others are done, done, done. Right now, with a severe lack of rainfall, that lone daffodil is about the only green thing in the pasture between my front veggie garden and the roadway.

Larry, The great thing about having a fenced garden is that it keeps the plants safe (mostly) from a man who is operating a rototiller, string trimmer, lawn mower or chain saw. All my plants shiver and get highly nervous when Tim is near them with any sort of power equipment in his hands....because some innocent, much-loved plant is likely to die. He doesn't intend for it to happen, but it does.

Dawn

Larry, what kind of daffodils are in the 2nd pic? Too gorgeous.

Here are pics of my tulip mondial. Love it... Just keeps getting prettier & prettier

KPlum, Madge does not remember what kind of daffodil it is, she said it was some kind of double she ordered from Breck's.

I love your tulips also, I was never any good with tulips. The first year they would look pretty good, and it was down hill from then on.