What to do with tulips in pots now.

[purplepeony]

I never have much luck with tulips in pots after one year. I usually leave them in the pots but 2nd year they rarely come up.
This year I want to plant summer bedding in the pots- should I take the tulips out and store them until the autumn, or should I just put the bedding on top of them? If I take them out do I need to wait until the foliage has died down?

I just transfer all mine to my flower beds ready to come up again next year.

I have found they don't do as well in pots a second year, so if you have soil in the ground, plant them in the ground in a sunny spot. Cut off the leaves only when they have turned brown.

What PestoMonster said.

I think they usually need two or three years to recharge before you can get flowers from them reliably againb, which is a lot of faff.

If you buy a lot pof bulbs, can I suggest orderinbg online direct from the Netherlands (various websites). We used to order 300 or so mixed bulbs and split them with friends for a fraction of the price of buying at a garden centre/supermarket in the UK.

thanks- consensus seems to be that leaving in pots for next year is not a good idea?

I could put them in the soil but they won't match my colour scheme in the borders.

Maybe I will take a risk and plant some out and leave the others to dry and repot in the autumn?

Do you have a sunny front garden with soil?

My front garden is tiny but my back garden is quite big. However, my back garden colour scheme for tulips is black and white and in my pots on the patio I put some bright orange with forget me nots.

I have this problem with 'wrong' coloured tulips - I plant them into the garden after one year in pots, but pick them for the house as soon as they come into flower, so don't worry about the colour scheme.

Hmmm.that's a good idea.