95% failure rate on tulips. What happened?

The good news is the tulips were 25% off.

The bad news is 95% of them didn't come up.

The players: Single Early Tulips

50 Tulip Bellona: Golden-yellow.
50 Tulip Christmas Dream: Fuchsia-rose.
50 Tulip Couleur Cardinal: Scarlet-red, flushed purple.
50 Tulip Princess Irene: Orange flushed purple.
50 Tulip Purple Prince: Purple.
50 Tulip White Marvel: White

The plot: Planted days after they arrived the first week of November in the same bed Monte Carlo Double early tulips did well last year. Only difference this year is I put down a 4" layer of mulch (which was removed the end of Feb).

Deer are not the villians as we have none. Moles like this bed (and the garden and the yard) but have never harmed anything. I dug a little today and found no bulbs except one slimey something which may have once been a tulip. The vendor is well known and well respect so I shall not name names but a failure there is unlikely (but not impossible I suppose).

Crocus, chionodoxa, puschkinia, scilla, minature daffodils, species tulips, muscari and puschkinia are in the lawn to the right of the bed and did fine. Hyacinth and Red Emperor tulips (which I thought I had torn up last spring but came back) are in the triangle to the left of the bed and did fine.

Any ideas on what might have caused a near total failure of the single early tulips?

I can't answer your question since I stopped growing tulips because they don't rebloom in my warm climate - but I do empathize with you. What a disappointment when you planted 300 bulbs and got so little coming up. Hopefully someone will be able to provide you with an answer.

Oh, my! What a disaster!

Perhaps some other kind of animal intervention (other than deer and moles). Maybe chipmunks, squirrel, or possibly voles (which may use the mole tunnels for easy access) and who love tulip bulbs could be the devastators? I notice you have a sidewalk protecting one side, but maybe that wasn't enough to keep varmints out.

If your one found tulip bulb was slimy would that indicate some kind of virus-y issue, I wonder? Any other slimy ones found since? Of course, you have several different varieties, so that would be unlikely, I would guess.

You didn't store them outside pre-planting and possibly let them freeze, by chance? Doesn't seem likely, but.... Or, you didn't plant them so late that they didn't have time to grow roots (that protect the bulbs because of some bulb chemistry) before the first good freeze after planting?

Just some ideas...I will be interested to hear what others say.

I am so sad about your tulip garden! I know a little of how you feel~~I planted 100 in pots and didn't protect them enough from freezing and lost most of them, too.

tabasco...I'm thinking voles but haven't had a problem before.

Planted them days after they arrived the end of Oct, first of Nov. Last year i put in double early tulips even later. Didn't use mulch the first year. Wondering if that provided a nice lair for something. Ground froze shortly after putting in the tulips and laying down the mulch.

What concerns me now is what to plant there next month. Dahlias are on order but I would hate to lose those.

The slimey left-over bulb is of interest to me, though. Mine that didn't come up were slimey, too. I planted mine a bit late (sale bulbs from B & B) and I dare say they didn't have enough time to root before the ground froze around them, causing them to slime up and give up the ghost.

Voles terrorize my tulips, too, and they certainly wreak havoc everywhere here.

I don't know if dahlias are favorites of the vole's dessert buffet or not. You could put in zinnias and have a feast for the butterflies, though. They would love that and they aren't destructive! (-:

Good idea. Maybe I'll start some zinnia's today tabasco. Got some giant white and pink from Johnny's. They certainly are no care plants. Having a bed that costs a few bucks to create would ease my mind. Now where to plant the dahlia seedlings I pre-ordered which will be here the end of May.

A speaker at our garden club told us that bulbs grow roots only between 60 degrees, when the soil starts to cool, and 40 degrees, when root growth stops. I've planted daffodils late, hoping against hope, and had lousy results.
Better luck next year!

David, that sounds very like vole issues I've had in the past. I even had a few left to bloom and 1 by 1 I found them bent over, wilted. With a gentle tug, I found bulbless stems, obviously chewed at the base. That's heartbreaking, I feel your pain. The remaining Hyacinths and Daffodils make me think voles too (voles typically avoid them), and they indicate drainage and soil conditions are good.

tabasco, interesting about the slimy bulbs from the B&B sale- I had the same thing happen. I thought I had let them get too cold after rooting in their pots, now I'm wondering. I was sick about it!

Well, gem, I'm thinking my sale bulbs arrived late in the season to begin with, and then I procrastinated on getting them into the ground so they didn't have a chance to root properly before the soil got too cold.

I can't think that B & B had anything to do with my crop failure. I put it up to operator error (& lazyness!)