Tulips sprouting in February

Hello,

I am from Varna, Bulgaria (southern europe) zone 8a. I have a container with some Tulips. They come up even before the snowdrops. Last year when spring arrived they were all damaged. Some didn't even flower! I water them regularly. I don't fertilize them. They get the morning sun. Should I bring them in to stop them freezing or am I doing something wrong?

Tulips need winter chill in order to bloom. I know where I am in zone 9, we won't get blooms at all from tulips unless we pre-chill the bulbs in the refrigerator (or buy bulbs from a vendor who's prechilled them). I would imagine it's similar in your zone, maybe you get enough winter chill that sometimes you'll get some blooms naturally, but you'll likely have better results if you pre-chill them.

As far as them coming up now--in warmer winter climates, bulbs often will come up early, if they just have leaves up and you get a frost or something the foliage may be damaged a little but the plant should be fine and ought to send up new leaves. If you've got flowers or flower buds and are expecting some sub-freezing temperatures, you may want to cover up the plants on those cold nights so you don't lose the flowers.

Hello!

We did have a warm spell of 20C in the end of January that lasted a while. Thats when I found out that my tulips were out. Last year I saw my tulips in December!

Ecrane is right, the fluctuating temp have upset a lot of plants over the past few years, but as she has pointed out, if you get a sudden frost or heavy freeze, then the tender foliage of the tulips will wilt and that is the part that feeds the bulbs to help form the flowers, so keep a good watch on the weather forcast, if heavy frost is predicted, then take them under cover overnight, but find a cool place indoors or they will really like the heat and flower even earlier. I suspect, like us here in Scotland, the warmer winter months have made a lot of spring bulbs come up earlier than normal, I have Daffodils ready to flower already, but they dont normally do this till March/April, so there is nothing your doing wrong, just nature telling the plants it's warm enough to get on with growing and sending out flowers, after flowering, give the bulbs a feed so that the roots take up the food to strengthen the bulbs for the following year, remove the flower heads too as you dont want the bulbs to use energy making seeds. good luck. WeeNel.

Hello,

At the moment it is -5C and tomorrow it should be -8C. Is that too cold for the tulips?

Hello!

Last year I just left nature to care for them. I hope they will be alright. I will feed them this year.