My tulips have shattered

A couple years ago I invested hundreds of dollars in bulbs, not realizing that tulips are usually only good for a season or two. This is year three, and from the multitude of tulips I have growing up in the same spots (at least the ones that are sprouting) it looks like the bulbs have all shattered and I will probably only get a few flowers this year. My daffs aren't quite up yet, but I think I heard they are fine until they need to be divided.

So what do guys do? Do you just dig them up and throw them away? I hate to do that... seems like a waste of money. Or do you divide the bulblets and replant them? If so, how long does it take for them to bloom again, if ever? I don't mind waiting a couple years - I will just move them somewhere they won't be disturbed.

Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere. I am new to this site.

What does shattered mean?

The bulb splits into lots of little bulblets.

I learned to buy mostly Darwin's and species tulips. They tend to come back, with fertilization. I really like the ones at John Scheeper's the best and he tells the truth about whether they are perennial or not. You can also ask bleek, who is a member here. I have bought nice ones from him.

I think I found a shattered tulip in my bed. It looked like a bunch of little tulip bulbs when I dug it out. Will these grow and mature into full size tulips and bloom again? The little bulbs looked firm and healthy, but way too small to bloom, and now I don't see any leaves where I reburied them.

Since they shattered/ make daughter bulbs, all you have to do to have blooms year after year is plant additional new tulips 3-4 more years. Then you'll have daughter bulbs at different stages of growth and should have blooms year after year once the first batch matures.

Last month I bought 90 spent bulbs (at 10 cents a piece) from a store that was getting ready to throw them away. I let them finish out their growth, unearthed them, cleaned them up and have them stored in dry peat moss. (I live in very hot south Texas. They would never survive summer in the ground here.) Next fall I'll replant them, fertilizing well, and then continue the process of 'digging, planting, waiting' until they mature.

Kind of like growing something from seed...

That sounds good, thanks.

Dstartz, are you saying that the daughter bulbs will mature without moving & separating them?

I'm thinking that the big tulip bulbs we purchase must start out small, so maybe it would work to dig up the daughter bulbs and spread them out so they have more room to grow, eventually resulting in lots of bigger bulbs that will bloom again?

If so, I wonder how far apart the daughter bulbs should be planted?

Has anybody been successful in getting tulips to bloom again once they've shattered into bunches of tiny daughter bulbs?

I have some simple tulips (the purple ones) that for about 6 years have multiplied and bloomed without doing anything at all. Aside from a little bone meal once or twice a year ~