Bulbs = 0 Blooms

We dig up our tulips each year and re-plant them. They bloomed great Spring 2015.
We have really big bulbs.
We planted them this year. They grew nice big, wide leaves but they never bloomed.
What the heck happened?

Hey, even if you don't know, comment. I would like to know there's someone out there reading this post.

Of course I'm reading it! I read everything you post.

This does not seem to have been the best year for bulbs. I dug mine up and put them back in and they were disappointing. Especially the doubles and triumphs. Same types of bulbs I always use. The species turkestanica was great and I didn't even dig it up. So I am sending them to the driveway (I use my old bulbs in inconspicuous locations) and ordering all new bulbs. Something I haven't done in years. My Angeliques were only good for one year. But lily flowering tulips are very strong, and they repeated. So I am going back to an old combo -- so I am going back to a duo that worked well. Lily flowering White Trumphinator and lilyflowering Yonina. Strong stems, that graceful ballet look I love so much - and they come back!!! Those and species.

Hi Donna, Your combo, as usual, is gorgeous.
The tulips that did not bloom this year are Darwin Impression. This would have been the third year for them. The bulbs were large. I think I will contact John Scheepers and ask them.
For the first time this year, I grew Emperor tulips. They were the most enjoyable tulips I have ever grown. They bloomed very early, and the blooms are huge. There's not a lot of colors to choose from, but the huge flowers make up for the limited color options. They were 3/4 the size of a softball. They bloomed for a very long time due to the cool weather so early in the season. I did dig them up. The bulbs looked small. I will plant them again I suppose, but I'm going to order more to plant this fall.
I choose the very early Emperor tulips because I wanted to pull the tulips so I could plant other plants in that particular garden.
I did talk today to a gal that leaves her tulips in the ground, and they come back every year. I could hardly believe it. She's not a gardener and didn't know what kind of tulips they were. I'd like to see those tulips next spring.
Anyway, thanks for posting. I'm a little slow in responding. I've been so busy working in my gardens and find myself exhausted in the evenings. It rained today, so things slowed down.

I did talk today to a gal that leaves her tulips in the ground, and they come back every year.

birder17 please excuse my lack of knowledge and experience re such matters.

I take it that one removes tulip bulbs from the ground after flowering with replanting in the Fall as this routine is thought to allow for more reliable blooming in the spring?

I love gardening but I can only imagine the time this process must take! (Do you find it an onerous task?)

Hi rouge21.
The usual consensus around my area is tulips are considered annuals if you leave them in the ground because of the clay soil and poor drainage with the winter moisture.

Digging up the tulips is not difficult. I put them in friable soil so they come up easily. I sometimes use a garden fork to keep from cutting into the bulbs.

No, it's the sort of thing that's done in public gardens so that one display can be replaced by the next, seasonal display, without any yellowing bulb foliage left to be seen.
The more usual practice for home gardening - except in cases/climates/conditions such as birder17 describes - is to leave the bulbs in the ground to act as perennials, and to allow the foliage to yellow off naturally. It's also hidden by the developing foliage of the other perennials in the bed.

That is what I do. It would be such a chore to dig up and replant each year.