I got tulips for V-Day. If I leave them potted will they bloom next year?

The issue with bulbs is that growers give them perfect conditions ready for them to be planted and then flower, though often they are planted in low quality potting soil. To get them to re-flower you need to give your Tulips ideal conditions, as far as is possible, to ensure that this year they build up their reserves inside the bulb, and create next year's flowers, before they die back in late spring/early summer.

For this reason I recommend that you acclimatise them to outdoors life, as well as feed them with a good balanced fertiliser. They will photosynthesise more if they are getting brighter light than inside a home, and the fertiliser will enable them to convert the light energy into food reserves, as well as manufacture next year's leaves and flowers.

Give them a couple of hours a day, in a shady spot, to start with, and increase this over a couple of weeks. I;m hoping your appartment has an outdoor spot that they can shelter in - if not, give them the closest that you can get to outdoors conditions. Don't over-water, but also ensure that they don't dry out for long periods either, both of which would stress them.

Once the bulbs have died back, you can either lift and store the bulbs, or just re-pot in fresh potting mix - I prefer to keep my bulbs dry and cool, whilst they are dormant. Then they can be re-potted in fall/autumn, giving them some cool dark weeks to root, and then grow and flower next year.

You may get mixed results with flowering next year, as it's hard for us home growers to reproduce the perfect conditions that bulb growers give their bulbs before they're sold. If you were also to buy some new bulbs, then you'd have some pots that were more guaranteed of success, just in case yours weren't as fantastic as this year. Over time they will re-establish, but it's important to remember that they really want to grow outdoors to become their strongest.

Hope this helps. Good luck! Rob

Get a large enough planter (one with drainage helps). When autumn comes, add a few more bulbs to the pot and then next spring you'll have a lovely little "garden pot garden". Or you can add Daffodils if you like. (plant bulbs pointy part up...but doesn't matter, they know to turn themselves towards the light ;).

I have a neighbor who threw her pot out with the bulb in it...it sat that way all year and STILL bloomed again the following year! Snow and everything had buried it.

You can plant them in a large planter and they will come up next year.