If you love a garden that grows more beautiful with each passing year, naturalizing with bulbs is the way to go. Planting tulips and daffodils that return season after season creates a landscape filled with effortless color. These flowers multiply underground, spreading out into cheerful drifts that look as though they were always meant to be there. By choosing the right naturalizing bulbs, you can create a perennial display that requires very little maintenance.

What Does Naturalizing Mean?

Naturalizing is simply planting bulbs and allowing them to come back and multiply naturally. Unlike annual plantings that need to be refreshed every year, naturalized bulbs establish themselves in the soil. Over time, they form larger clumps and more blooms. For gardeners, this means more beauty with less work.

Why Choose Tulips and Daffodils?

Both tulips and daffodils are excellent choices for naturalizing, but they each bring something unique. Tulips provide bold, vibrant color in a wide range of shades and shapes. Daffodils, on the other hand, are among the most reliable daffodils that return every spring, filling the garden with cheerful yellow, white, and bicolored blooms. Planting both together ensures waves of color from early to late spring.

Perennial Tulips That Keep Coming Back

Not all tulips are reliable perennials, but some varieties are known to return year after year. At Nagel Glads, our perennial tulips include selections that can handle naturalizing:

• Ile de France Triumph Tulips: Rich red blooms with sturdy stems that return strongly.
• Novi Sun Darwin Tulips: Golden-yellow flowers with an impressive perennial habit.
• Orange van Eijk Darwin Tulips: Warm coral-orange blossoms that naturalize beautifully.
• Don Quichotte Triumph Tulips: A classic rosy-pink tulip that is both reliable and elegant.

When planting tulips for naturalizing, choose a sunny, well-drained location. The better the conditions, the stronger the bulbs will be in the years ahead.

Daffodils That Return with Ease

Daffodils are among the best naturalizing bulbs you can plant. They are deer-resistant, hardy, and dependable. Once planted, they tend to come back stronger every year. Some of our favorites include:

• Tete a Tete Daffodils: Early-blooming miniatures that form cheerful clumps over time.
• Carlton Daffodils: Large golden blooms and one of the best naturalizing daffodils.
• Mount Hood Daffodils: Pure white flowers that light up shady garden corners.
• Dick Wilden Daffodils: Ruffled, double-petaled yellow blooms that add a bold presence.

Planting daffodils in groups of ten or more gives the most natural look, especially when scattered through lawns, under trees, or along pathways.

Tips for Success with Naturalizing Bulbs

For the best results, plant your bulbs deeply in well-drained soil. Avoid cutting foliage too soon in spring, as the leaves help recharge the bulbs for next year’s blooms. Over time, you can divide crowded clumps and spread them to new spots in your garden. With just a little care, your tulips and daffodils will return for decades.

A Garden That Lasts

By choosing the right perennial tulips and daffodils that return, your garden becomes a place of enduring beauty. Naturalized bulbs create a rhythm through the seasons, offering color, fragrance, and joy without extra effort. Explore our full collection at Nagel Glads to find the varieties that will keep your garden blooming year after year.