Thursday 26 January 2012

Focus on Crocus

Crocus flowers are beginning to appear in my garden.


I have some around the base of the three trees in my back garden next to the veg plot. These are "naturalised" - in other words I leave them to their own devices.

This year I also have a few pots of Crocuses that I planted in the Autumn. Crocuses are very good bulbs (corms) to plant, because they are small and don't require much depth of soil, so you can put them in small pots and all those little spaces in the garden where nothing much else would fit. And these days they come in a good variety of colours. I bought three packs at £1.99 each - a total of 45 corms.


The stripey yellow "Gipsy Girl" ones (pictured in this post) were the first to flower. Notice that the pack says "Flowers Feb/ March".






Did you spot the pesky little aphid lurking in there?


Hopefully within the next few days I'll have flowering Crocuses all over the place.

What do you do with your potted Crocuses when they have finished flowering? This is what I do: tip them out of their pots, dry them; store them until Late Summer / Early Autumn and then plant them somewhere in the garden. They do tend to lose their vigour a bit, so re-planting them in pots is likely to give you second-class specimens. When they are in the border they  probably won't come under such close scrutiny, so their individual quality will not be as important.

15 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos! I am envious of the color you are seeing in your garden... everything around here is just so gray and dreary.

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  2. I like the look of Cream Beauty, a real buttery colour. I only have a few white and purple ones in my garden.

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  3. I liked the look of Gypsy Girl. Mine are also starting to come out and your post has made me think I need to look at them more closely now!

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  4. Lovely photos Mark, particularly the first and fifth. I've not seen any crocus blooms yet in our garden, which given the massive hailstorm we had earlier today is probably just as well!

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  5. Beautiful photos and I so love crocus blooms. Since our house and lot were new, we planted some crocus last fall. I can't wait for them to come up. But I'm beginning to think they will flower when I'm out of town this spring. I'll be so unhappy with that.

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  6. As I've mentioned before Mark its been quite a few years since I've seen crocus flowers, so thank you.
    The colour is amazing especially with that blue behind which was obviously intentional eh? ;)
    I remember when I planted masses of them in our garden in Scotland and the field mice came and devoured virtually every bulb! I gave up after that.
    Have a wonderful weekend :D

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  7. Good observation finding that aphid. Really enjoyed the close up photo.We have three Gypsy Girls blooming in the garden, when the sun is shining.

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  8. I am not sure why we don't have crocuses here in GA. I had them in NH but I guess we don't get cold enough here. Our first spring flower from a bulb is the daffodil.

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  9. Oh Mark, such lovely, cheerful photos you've taken! Your's are a bit early but then that's why we love them..to be the first to cheer us out of our winter doldrums. Cheers, Jenni

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  10. I've just ordered some crocus corms and hope to harvest a wee bit of saffron. Problem is I can't decide if I will pop them in the garden to naturalise or into a pot for quality of crop. Any advice?

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  11. I have cream beauty - I love the colour. I like the delicate size too of the smaller crocuses or croci. Never realised Cream Beauty was scented - I'll have to get down to their level when they flower. Any bulbs that I grow in troughs go into the garden then if I want them in troughs again the next year - I buy some more!

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  12. Mine aren't out yet but I love to see them fully open to the sun - but that rarely happens, sadly. I love the large ones especially the pale lilac colour with deep purple veins, I must have hundreds of them dotted about the garden - but nothing in sight at the moment.

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  13. I've not seen mine losing their vigor but they were planted in the ground to start. I wonder if that makes a difference? How nice to have a first bit of colour!

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  14. Lovely bright colours Mark. I'm surprised at how many flowers you actually have in your garden, I thought you only had eyes for veg!!

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  15. Except my snowdrops nothing else popped out of the ground. And, the winter finally decided to show it's teeth so, I'll have to wait a little bit longer for my irises and crocuses to come.

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