Many tulips will bloom over several years in my Berkeley area garden but are unreliable because of our lack of winter. In the Botanical Garden, T. clusiana (maybe not all cultivars) has been long lived and this is a well known species for zone 9. I'd like to hear of other species that have done well for Bay area gardeners. Likely candidates are T. bakeri, saxatilis, batalini, and linifolia. Paul Paul Licht, Director University of California Botanical Garden 200 Centennial Drive Berkeley, CA 94720 (510)-643-8999 http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/