One-trick Tulips

Ok, so all the leaves fell off my tulips i got for valentines so i pull them out of the pot and notice a couple of odd things.


one is that they're rootbound in the pot. i didn't realize the roots grew that extensively.
second, the roots were very fine. i dont know if that's a normal thing for tulips or not. the only other bulb i've planted has been amaryllis and they have dramatically thicker roots.
third, the bulbs - instead of being a single large bulb, they split into several smaller bulbs very similar to a clove of garlic. yeah, garlic. i thought that perhaps i would get one tiny bulb off a very large one but all the bulbs seem a bit on the small side. but then again i'm not accustomed to dealing with bulbs much less tulip bulbs.

very sad thing i read though is that in my zone they are treated as an annual. annual meaning you plant them, they grow, you dig them up, you throw them away. wha? wha? throw them away? as in trash? damnit!
quote i found from a poster on gardenweb:

Okay, first you need to know that tulips in the deep south are planted as Annuals. This means, they will bloom once, and then we dig them up and discard them. (I know. I know. Repeat after me: They're cheap. :) The reason for this is we don't have anywhere near enough winter chill for them to rebuild their strength to bloom again. The PLANTS will come up year after year, but you will get no blooms (or a pitiful little one just here and there). So, you need to prepare yourself for the throw-away.

but they were a present! i'm not prepared for the throw-away! you know what, i'm stubborn and i'm doing it anyway. i'm saving them, planting them and not going to put too much stock into them bloom-wise next season.

i don't know why but i didn't get any seed pods either. that was a bit disappointing. i even tried to help them out and play bee-girl and pollinate them myself. sigh...maybe it's b/c they were some sort of hybrid? i'll buy a bag next year and see if i get pods from those. i know that they're cheap and money is not the point. its the fact that i want to see generations and generations of my parent plant and know that i facilitated the growth of the new little tulip babies. ^_^