A WEEK ago tomorrow I stepped outside into the evening after what for the most part had been a miserable, wet day. The air was warm and the setting sun briefly broke through the cloud, bathing the stark garden in golden light before slowly slipping behind Slieve Donard. For the first time this year, I sensed spring.
The harbingers – a word I really like but only tend to use in relation to spring – have already begun to appear – the buds on the flowering currant, the snowdrops and the crocuses on the lawn.
The latter sounds pretentious – it’s almost ‘croquet on the lawn’ which begs you to say it in a plummy accent – but it’s an easy, effective trick and one that you need only do once but enjoy for many years after. And when I say ‘lawn’, I’m not talking about a perfect square of pristine, carpet-like sward where you like to practice your putting but any expanse of grass, including verges, that’s kept reasonably short over winter.
Crocuses, like daffodils and snowdrops, always look their best in a naturalised setting. Yes they can be deployed more formally and in containers to great effect but a springtime, alfresco orgy of flowering bulbs in a landscape not fully tamed is a much more poetic sight.
Where’s there’s no canopy in winter crocuses will be content beneath trees and will even tolerate a shady spot with soil on the dry side. Likewise they are at home in beds and borders planted between dormant herbaceous perennials.
For me, however, the classic crocus display is in drifts in partial but preferably full sun against the foil of short(ish) grass. The advantage of spring-flowering crocuses over daffodils in this context is that they flower earlier, meaning they encroach less into your grass’s growing season.
This is noteworthy because the foliage of spring-flowering bulbs, like daffodils and crocuses, must be left at least six weeks after flowering before it can be mown. AT LEAST six weeks, it should be stressed.
Personally, I’m more than happy to allow the grass that immediately surrounds the crocuses to grow long right up to early June. It may sound obvious but the aim with a naturalised planting is to make it look natural, which is something different from completely random – though there is a degree of randomness in nature.
Bulb planting should be carried out in September/October. There are two options for planting: lifting a square of turf and scattering the bulbs on to the soil before replacing the turf; or planting singly using a bulb planter with a long spade-like handle. It’s a job made much easier if there are two of you.
Once you’ve selected your method and the area to be colonised, take a couple of handfuls of bulbs and gently toss them in the air, then plant them where they land. Remember it’s a drift you're seeking to create not a constellation, so don’t be over eager. Loosen the soil under where the bulbs are to be planted before adding some balanced fertiliser or bonemeal.
The Royal Horticultural Society’s website lists more than a dozen spring flowering crocus varieties recommended for naturalising in grass. Many carry the society’s Award of Garden Merit, which unlike many awards these days is actually awarded on merit – like it says on the tin.
Among those feted are the early flowering Crocus tommasinianus, which appears from January, Crocus biflorus ‘Blue Pearl’ and Crocus chrysanthus ‘Cream Beauty’.
