Last year was my first to try to grow any bulbs, but what I did was planted fast growing annuals in front of them. In the first picture, you can see the tulips, and there is nothing in front of them:

This picture was taken from the other side. These are 'Dwarf Ladybird Mix' Cosmos, which started to fill in the area just as the tulip foliage was dying back.

Some of the early blooming, shorter Coreopsis like 'Creme Brule', or a short Gallardia like 'Goblin' would bloom pretty early and not get too tall, too fast.

I'm afraid I'm with your DH on this one, the dying foliage bugs me too.

Bonnie

Hi Jamie,

I dont really try to hide the foliage very muchthough I dont really have all that many bulbs yet at this point! Crocus have such tiny leaves, they seem to just "go away" very quickly, so I find theyre really no problem at all. This is the first year Ive had the tiny little species crocus, and I definitely want to put in a few more of those, and more of the larger hybrids this fall.

With the daffodils and the hyacinths I have, I deadhead the flower stems all the way down, and then I slowly trim the foliage shorter and shorter as it browns on the tips. That seems to leave enough foliage long enough for the bulbs to develop good flowers for the following year, yet it keeps the visible foliage pretty much green and decent looking till its all the way gone. If you had a LOT of bulbs, this method would be a LOT of work, and probably not feasible, but Ill never have a whole lot because of my small yard, so it works well for me.

I dont have any tulipsand probably wont put any inbecause they have some of the largest foliage which makes it harder to keep it looking good while its dying down. That said, Im amazed by how well Bonnies tulips are hidden by the cosmos! Unfortunately I dont have room to put annuals in to hide things since my space is so limited, and almost all of it is reserved for perennialswhich do help hide some of the foliage if they happen to be in the right place. But Ill probably stick to gradually putting in more dafs since I feel you get more bang for the buck with them. And I guess I just like daffodils better than tulips, and (if I ever get enough flowers that Im willing to cut some of them) they seem to last much longer in water than tulips do. Id like to get a few of the pretty pink dafsand some of the other more unusual ones.

The grape hyacinths I have are evergreen, so theyre not really any problem at all. Every now and then they get long and floppy looking, and I just gather the foliage all together in my hand and give them a short haircut straight across the top to make them look good again. In a couple weeks they have fresh, new foliage and look brand new. I actually just gave them a haircut a couple weeks ago so theyll be fresh and perky looking when theyre blooming.

I've heard stories of people "braiding" the foliage on their bulbs to make them look better after theyre done blooming, but thats never made any sense at all to me since, presumably, the purpose of leaving the foliage on is so it can take in the sunlight to help produce the flower bud for the following year, and if the foliage is braided, how much sun can it take in!!! AND, why would brown/dying foliage look any better if its braided than if its not braided!!! I dont braid mine!

So my primary recommendation would be to trim the brown foliage off gradually as they die back!

Whatever you decide to do, it is SOOOOO worth having them for the early spring color. It is just such a wonderful infusion of gardening excitement right when you need it the most!

Its spring, its spring, its spring.............
Skybird

I am eager to read the answers to this one but I thought I would share the link to a similar post from last year so we can get all the ideas possible. :)
I have planted daylilies and pansies to hide tulip foliage since last year and Ive sprinkled poppy seed over the top of my daffodils. The pansies survived under the snow and are in their third week of blooming. I only wished I had planted more.
Does anyone have tulip foliage up yet?

Here is a link that might be useful: What is blooming in your garden right now?

Well, I'm not a huge salvia fan (I know, bite my tongue!), but I love, love, love the way that coreopsis looks in your garden, Bonnie! And there are some good suggestions in the thread azura linked to as well, like forget-me-nots that might be something to consider.

I do have tulip foliage coming up, actually - it's about an inch and a half tall now, exciting! I had a bunch of bulbs at my old place, tulips, daffodils, hyacynths and crocus, all interplanted among my rose beds. So cheerful in the spring, and I adore different "fancy" tulips. These that "came with the house" are just plain ol' red, and they need a complimentary color to grow with them, in my opinion.

We're re-doing those beds this summer, so I'll definately write these down to suggest when I get ready to argue my case. ;-)

Thanks! More suggesions are always welcome, of course...

I do have tulip foliage. I don't know what kind they are since they were here when I got here. The leaves are very pretty, variegated. I remember the blooms were red last year.

My garden definitely has a foliage issue. Daffodils and daylilies everywhere, and nothing hides them. I'm going to see what I can do about annuals for cover this year, but I also really need to mark the locations and dig and divide once things have died back.

I think it's nice to find a cover plant to hide the foliage too, but I don't do it very well. But hey, if your husband wants to dictate what goes in the garden, does he do the work to maintain it? I keep telling my wife that if she'd just start working in the garden, she could pick anything she wants to grow!

Hmmm... It's still not working, though... As a matter of fact, I'm reworking a long, mostly perennial, bed to make her more happy with constant summer blooming annuals.
:-D

That's actually the problem (I shouldn't say problem, but...). Hubby likes to get out there and do the planting, weeding and watering too, so he actually does "earn" a full 50 percent say in what goes in since he puts just as much work into it as I do (aside from the seed starting - he doesn't seem interested at all in helping with that). It's great that we do it together, but a bit frustrating when it comes to deciding what to put in (and where). Especially since we come from families with completely different perspectives on gardening (his is all annuals, mine is predominantly perennials w/annuals for "trim" and pots).

Be careful what you wish for...it was a lot easier making decisions when it was all up to me. ;-)

Most of what you see in this photo are fringed tulips I got from a friend in Slovakia. They are just popping up in my front yard where the pocket gophers and voles do not roam (knock on wood). Inside the red circles are Raggedy Andy daylilies I received at the Fall Plant Swap from Catlady (Thank you Catlady and Catlady's hubby too). So far, the timing seems perfect because the tulips grow a lot faster than the daylilies and the daylilies will hopefully cover the dying tulip foliage perfectly.
(Please ignore the dead daylily foliage and that naughty little grass sneaking in there...its funny how I dont notice these things unless they are blown up to 250% on my computer screen)
I will try to remember to update when the tulips have faded away.

I wanted to bump this one and see how the hiding of tulip foliage is working out for everyone. Anyone have any success stories?
Here are the tulips above when they were in bloom last month:
This photo was taken 4/29.

I will take a new photo of the foliage as it is dying back and post it in the next few days. The daylilies are doing an okay job but I was hoping someone else has an even better idea.
Jamie, did you find something that is working well for you?

I bet all novice gardeners googles 'how to hide tulip foliage?" at some point. I'd love to hear from anyone re. successes (or not) they've had. Although I started gardening in serious only 3 years ago when we bought a new place with a larger yard, I plan to try something new this year. I designed a bed expansion that will include tulips, daffodils and hyacinths interplanted with an early-blooming lily called foxtrot, followed by Lily Elodie. I plan to front the bed with drought-tolerant Salvia (sorry Jamie), lavender and coreopsis. I am a little concerned with watering the second flush of lilies (Elodie)--although the bed gets lots of sun in spring, as the trees leaf out, the area gets afternoon shade. I'm hoping this will prevent me from having to water much. And I do plan to drive a divider in the ground along the edge of the tulips to prevent perennial roots from bothering them.

Great forum & suggestions by the way!

-Dina in Halifax (zone 6b)

Can't you dig your spent tulips, bare-root them and trim and resow in the fall? Not that I would ever do something so labor intensive lol.

Exactly David! Neither would I. I spend winter planning to minimize any labour intensive summer chores! The last thing I want to spend my summer days doing (after weeding, that is) is pulling up 500+/- bulbs. I weed and play in the garden every morning before work and the second I get home from work, I want to jump in the lake or go for a kayak. Warm summer evenings are meant to enjoy friends and the garden with a glass of cold Pinot Grigio:)