I think they should be fine, they are pretty tough! The tulips are coming up in Washington Park in Albany also, I don't think they do anything to protect them, but I am not sure. A lot of my daffodils are poking through about 2" with no protection, and they are doing fine.

Here is a link that might be useful: This may be of help to you.

tulip PETALS would be frost sensitive ..

tulip leaves.. should be mostly hardy to all frost freeze ... in my z5 ... except for the ultimate extremes

if the tulips are growing.. that means your soil has thawed to the depth of the bulb.. i would suggest that by that time.. you should not have 6 to 8 inches of anything directly on top of your plants ....

so i would start GENTLY pulling the mulch back ... but if stuff is growing.. you should do this slowly.. because they will have to harden off to the removal of the snug blanket ...

are the leaves finely chopped .. allowing air and moisture to move thru them...

or are they a thick gooey mat of anaerobic goo ... [no oxygen] .. do they stink like rotting death when you grab a handful from the soil level .. or are they sweet humus smelling ... thats the easy way to know ...

in other words.. is there any issue of them smothering and killing what is below them???

spring bulbs are really something you shouldnt need to worry all that much about ... they come up when they want to .. and it is not your problem to worry about them ... now if your rose bush was leafing out.. then you worry in z5 ... but not bulbs ...

and finally.. in z5 .. it is still march for crying out loud.. try not to do too much harm.. getting out there too early ... you know it can be back to hardcore winter in z5 as fast as overnight ... i have the fever as bad as you .. but i am loathe to go do too much uncovering just yet ...

good luck

ken

Yes uncover your tulips. If you don't they will work their way through the leaves and be white where they were covered. Tulips don't freeze easily. If these are early tulips they will be up now so be careful taking it off. If they are mid to late season they will be up later.

as i was carefully taking the leaf mulch off parts of the ground I found parts were still frozen.

I force tulip in my g'house business. The blooms/stem can take a freeze. You should not touch or disturb them if they are frozen, it does more harm than good.