Crocus

Crocus appear to be very soft and delicate, with their small, mainly goblet-shaped flowers, but in fact they are active during a relatively short growing season. The real changes that are taking place in their life are in the parts of the plant that is hidden underground - in the bulb.

If you want to plant crocus in borders than you should consider the effect you want to achieve from the color. Crocus is one of the most suitable bulbous plant to be used in a border. You can plant them in clumps, in this way they will provide you a real splash of color with their early flowering show. Some of the crocus are more vigorous than other, and they can be suitable for naturalizing in grass, like Crocus tommasinianus, Crocus pulchellus or Crocus nudiflorus.

Crocus is also a perfect plant for being plant in pots for an early spring display for your terrace or patio or for forcing bulbs for a colorful indoor display. They also make a good underplanting for deciduous trees and shrubs and also a good companion in a rock garden.

Their color vary from pale lilac to rich purple, from pale yellow to light orange, white, often with silvery overtones.

You can propagate them by seeds or offsets, but usually they are doing this by themselves, spreading liberally through the grass or borders. If you want to propagate them yourself you have to collect the seeds as soon as ripe, just before the seed capsule split and than sow them immediately in a cold frame, in containers. You have to leave the seedling in that place for two years before planting them out in the garden.

You can plant crocus corms 8-10 cm deep in a fertile, well-drained soil in autumn. There are some crocus species that will flower in autumn, those will be plant out in spring. Choose a place in full sun if possible, but they will also tolerate dappled shade. In the growing season water freely and apply a low-nitrogen fertilizer monthly.

In the moment that spring and summer flowers will show up there will be no trace of the crocus in your garden, is time when they disappear and start their process underground. In this time you have to leave them alone, over the dormancy period, and to not disturb them.

The best partners for spring flowering crocus are snowdrops, winter aconites or cyclamen, and even the combination of colors is not the best one, it seems to work well at this moment of the year when everything else is still asleep.