Are there bulbs that produce only leaves?

Question

Are there plants with bulbs that only produce leaves, no flowers? If I wanted to look up such plants, what should I search for? e.g. botanical term, name of plant family - whatever makes sense.

Background: I found some bulbs in my garden that i didn't think I'd seen flower. I put them in a pot to keep an eye on them and see what they are but they have gone through two years without producing any stalk or flower. They produce a lot of lush leaves so I thought they might be grown for foliage, but then what is the reproduction strategy of the plant?

Answer 1

No, all bulbs produce a flower at some point, though some may only flower once and then die. The usual cause of non flowering is environmental, meaning the plant hasn't been able to access sufficient food or water during the time its leaves are present to initiate flower production for the following year. A bulb is a storage organ, and when the leaves are actively growing, nutrients are transported and stored within the bulb to enable flowering a year later. Even cutting off the leaves or tying them up before they die back can cause blindness the following year. Try feeding your bulb leaves with a general fertiliser for six weeks, once a week, and see what happens next year - but once the leaves have gone, there's no point in feeding.