Love your question! I just did a seminar on great plant partners for a garden show. Here are some suggestions for bedmates with tulips: hosta planted nearby will emerge each year in late spring to cover up the dying tulip leaves. Daylilies are another drought-resistant perennial that will do well blocking dying tulip stems. Keep in mind that tulips need dry soil in the summer if you want them to come back but if you are digging up the bulbs you can use perennials or annuals to take their place for summer color. I also sometimes plant tulip bulbs in plastic nursery pots, slip these into the garden soil in the fall and then take up the entire pot in the spring after the tulips flower. Keep growing, Marianne Binetti