The tulip as duly noted in horticultural texts is a perennial flower. This means that a tulip should be expected to return and bloom year after year. But for all intents and purposes this isn't always the case. Most tulip-lovers content themselves with treating it as an annual, re-planting again each fall.

Do tulips spread every year?

Species tulips not only return year after year, but they multiply and form clumps that grow bigger each year, a process called naturalizing. That process happens when bulblets formed by the mother bulb get big enough and split off to produce their own flowers, van den Berg-Ohms explained.

Will tulips grow again next year?

Yes, they are officially perennials, but just not everywhere or for everyone. A tulip will happily come back year after year, but only if your garden happens to be in a village in the foothills of Nepal, or a town on the steppes of Armenia and Northern Iran.