I’VE never liked the phrase ‘spring has sprung’. It suggests the season of rebirth arrives in a single flourish over a matter of days – one minute it’s winter then Bang! This, however, is not my experience. As the past week has shown, there can be fleeting hints of spring that are quickly banished, blown away by a wintry gale.
What happens instead is a slow process during which there's a lot of unsettled weather while the aggregate temperature rises as the days get longer, triggering many of the plants we associate with spring into flower. Spring doesn’t so much spring as gradually emerge, hesitantly, like a hedgehog coming out of hibernation.
Among the grass and damp muddy patches on an area I was once cheekily called the lawn, the crocuses have appeared. While the crocus is generally classified as a ‘spring flowering’ bulb, I’m still not going to concede winter’s over – with the greatest respect to St Brigid.
The name ‘crocus’ is ancient in origin, with variations and derivatives turning up in a variety of classical languages from Sanskrit to Greek. It is a reference in one way or another to saffron, the yellow spice derived from Crocus sativus, a native of south-west Asia. The spring flowering species Crocus vernus and Crocus tommasinianus have been popular in northern European gardens for more than 500 years.
As late winter-early spring flowers, crocuses look at home in a woodland setting and will work alongside or as a substitute for snowdrops – just keep them in different drifts and swathes. The forest floor is their natural habitat in the parts of Europe, north Africa and the Middle East where they grow wild, and while the main strength of the crocus is its ability to flower in grassland, they shouldn’t just be confined to these areas.
They don’t look out of place in borders or in containers but avoid regular planting patterns because as well as looking daft, the failure of one to appear will destroy the symmetry. Natural looking drifts are better than straight lines or patterns. Locating them where they get morning or late afternoon sunlight will give the flowers and foliage a backlit effect.
Crocuses should be planted in early autumn so if you want a display this time next year, I suggest you make a note in your diary.
Planting is a job best carried out by two and is doubly easy again if the grass on the lawn is short. As long as your ground isn’t too hard you can use a bulb planter to punch a single hole into which you drop your bulb (which strictly speaking is a corm) before replacing the plug. If it’s a big area and you’re going for an intensive planting then it may be feasible to lift the turf in squares and position the bulbs below.
Also be mindful not to mow the foliage of your bulbs after flowering, as the leaves and spent flowers provides the initial nutrients for next year’s crop.
Crocus tommasinianus is a good spring-flowering choice for grass as it likes full sun. The diminutive pink cultivar ‘Roseus’ looks deceptively fragile but is as robust enough to withstand all February can throw at it.
For slightly later in the year go for Crocus vernus (or Dutch crocus) and its cultivars, such as ‘Pickwick’, which has white flowers with deep purple veins.
