crocuses

I agree,they look better close together..and when they start multiplying,they will be close together anyway..if they get too big a clump,you could split them after flowering if you want to..they won't mind :o)

Magical time for you Fran as your garden wakes up, enjoy x

Gorgeous colour Fran! They are such a joy, especially when the clumps have filled out a bit like this! :))

Crocuses I think Fran.....not sure if it's the birds or the pesky rabbits but almost all the petals have been eaten.....grrrr

I love them no matter what colour they are, usually the birds eat a lot of mine they do like the yellow ones the most but for some reason this year they seem to be leaving them alone, however the primroses are going through it instead, wouldn't mind so much if I didn't have feeders all over the garden...

They look beautiful Fran, you must be so pleased with them. The purple ones spread quickly where we live but the yellow ones don't seem happy at all.

I agree, they do look good close together ! Spring must be here !

@ Snoop – they do look better in drifts, but I usually get a bit paranoid about overcrowding, making them compete for resources, so I usually spread bulbs a bit wider. Maybe these got jostled together when the rose bush was taken up.

@ Bloomer – true, clumps can be split, that’s how I’ve got a garden half-full of forget-me-nots and geraniums, want them or not! Or want them *there* or not. There’s some wild woodland beyond my back fence; once I’ve civilised it a bit maybe some can go out there. Crocus, I mean, though now I think of it ...

@ Pam – it is, indeed! I’ve been mooning around a bit, nothing to do – well, plenty to do, but nothing I felt like doing, and nothing to see, so I didn’t want to do any digging in case I disturbed anything. I should mark where the plants are while I can see them, so I’ll know when I can’t.
Oh, shame about your munched petals! Is there anything you can put down to repel whatever’s doing it? sprinkle something around them? I’m told that chilli flakes works to repel squirrels – chilli powder would get washed away too quickly. Doesn’t affect birds, which is why you can mix chilli with bird food to repel squirrels yet not put the birds off. Lol try it, and if it still happens it’s birds!

@ Karen – I love blues and purples, would like a whole “blue” garden, or at least a section. I’ve got one yellow crocus clump coming up so far, all the rest are this shade

@ Lincs – true, any colour is lovely when they come up, especially in clumps that make them stand out! But I have a fondness for darker shades, maybe cos of my vision, I find lighter shades harder to see. But maybe if my yellow crocuses come up in similar clumps, they’d be equally outstanding.
It is a problem getting birds to understand the concept of “mine” and “yours”! I’d like to grow fruit, but having put out a welcome mat for them, could I expect them to understand that these would be for me, not them?

@ Stera – thank you! I’d not been out in the garden for more than a week – weather and mood combined to make me stay indoors – so I didn’t notice them coming up and starting to open.
I’ve got two varieties of purple crocus, and one of yellow, at least that’s what’s showing so far – got both purple on my GoY plant list, but not the yellow ones, for some reason. Nothing’s showing in the front garden yet, I’m sure I had white ones as well, or light cream.
Any idea why your yellow ones aren’t as happy? I know there are two types of crocus that flower at different seasons; think they have different botanical names, so not same family. But surely if they come up at the same time as other-coloured ones, they must have similar tastes and tolerances?

@ Rose – indeed, spring is just around the corner, or at least only a little way down the road. I should be doing so much to get ready for it.

I had a look on Wikipedia to see if they had the plural on there. They have it down as both Crocuses & Croci! So you were right! I'd never ever heard or seen a plural different from Crocuses! (You learn something new everyday - especially on GoY!)

Your clumps look really lovely! Unfortunately that one thing we don't have the luxury of on a small balcony! :-((

I have 100's now flowering on the balcony railings! I've taken lots of photos as they are a plant I love in the early spring! With their brilliant orange anthers they stand out a mile & make them so different from other plants!

Fran the yellow ones and the purple ones I meant are both the later sort. The earlier "species" variety I think you mean doesn't usually have the same vibrant colours, usually lighter blues and creams but they are always so welcome, being so early. There are several other varieties too, one even flowering in early winter. I don't know why the yellow ones seem less ready to spread here than the purple ones. So you can have crocuses of one sort or another for several months if you want to.

They are a glorious colour.....beautiful!!!!

I feel for you as regards your vision Fran, I count myself lucky as at least I now am back to one good eye most of the time, in fact the cataract op made me longsighted in the right eye so often have to remove my specs when watching telly and also travelling in the car looking at distant sights, however cannot do that on bright days, I only get black shapes sometimes and am often accused of ignoring people when out and about, they don't understand that I cannot make out who they are if they don't speak first, unfortunately my left eye is very bad now but they don't want to touch it in case they set the ulcers off again and specialist said it might not work anyway because of the scarring on the retina, anyone who has experienced them will know why I do not push for them to try....

Lincs I'm so sorry to hear about this - really thought it was sorted after the cataract op. What a difficult decision to make re the left one.

@ Balcony – I think it’s crocuses, properly, just as it’s octopuses now, not octopi, I was just being humorous
I’ll have to rush to your gallery to check out your crocuses!

@ Stera – I did read something years ago about staggering planting, to give an equally staggered flowering period. These didn’t go in till Feb-March last year, and put up a show in late March-April, though maybe that’s a bit extreme to do annually; they didn’t have time to build up reserves before flowering, so they were a bit puny. When [ha!] I get my garden plan sorted I’ll aim for something in flower all year round, or as much of it as possible.

@ Paul – Thanks. I wish I’d noticed them when they were still in bud, there’d have been some great pictures, but some other smaller clumps are just starting to think about opening, so maybe I can get some snaps of those.

@ Lincs – so pleased the op worked. Sorry to hear your other eye can’t be done as well. That option wasn’t around when my vision first started going, or maybe they thought there was nothing to be done.
I’ve not found an optician up here yet, so I’m still using the specs I got three years ago; no doubt a new pair would make a lot of difference! (Lol it’s certainly making a difference to my bank account – my specs cost about £400 every time, and I had to get new ones every year, so I’ve saved about a grand so far!
I have to wear a hat with a brim when I’m out, to shade my eyes, and sit with my back to the window indoors; I can’t stand light in my eyes, I find it actually painful, apart from getting dazzled and losing what little I’ve got. (Headlights are a pain at night; I walk along like I’m saluting, one hand to my forehead!) But at least it means I don’t need an umbrella, which is just as well; that in one hand, stick in the other, I’d be stuck even to get a pint of milk home from the corner shop.

My Crocuses are starting to go over for this year! :-(( It's a shame to see them end so soon but they will be back again next year! The pots they are in are now filling out with the winter flowering Pansies whose leaves & flowers are covering up the Crocus leaves.

This has been the first year in at least 4 that this has worked again! The last few years the Pansies have died during the winter for one reason or another so come spring I have had no Pansies to disguise the Crocus & Daffodil leaves while they die back.

Staggering your planting only works for the first year you plant the bulbs. If you leave them to their own devices in the ground the following year/s they will all flower at their natural time - altogether!

mine have almost gone now, too,aqnd I wish I'd seen them sooner so I could have enjoyed them more, but they've done what htey needed to do to reproduce next year, so they deserve a long rest now.

if i had to take them up after lfowring i don't think I'd have bought them in the first place; too much like hard work - and that's jsut trying to remember where they are!

As mine are mostly in pots I don't have the same problems as you. My problem is what to do with them during the summer months till they can be planted out again in October when I put in my winter/spring bedding.

I did try underplanting summer flowers, so that theere'd be something to see for longer; then thought about planintg the crocuses in troughs ad "resting" them at the back of the garden, or somewhere out of hte way; can see you 'd have problems iwth that, they'd still need light and water and so couldn't be put under anything to get them out of the way

They'd be OK Fran as the leaves disappear totally and they won't mind where they are within reason.

thanks, Stera. I've been finding odd bulbs all ove the place, need to mark them so I can dig them up when they've faded and plant them in troughs, so all my snowdorps will be in one, though i'll probably need a couple for crocuses and narcissi. at least then i should get a better display next year.

Move the snowdrops now while they still have their leaves - unusually they take better like that. Its called moving them "in the green".

thanks, Stera, that sounds a good plan. and while they're still green, I'll be able to see where they are!

That's definitely the best plan for Snowdrops! Spring flowering bulbs naturally die back as spring comes to an end & as they are no longer active they can be kept anywhere & don't need any light or water till about the end of September beginning of October.

I empty my pots of all the bulbs towards the end of May though the last couple of years I've left them in the pots/troughs & just put the summer bedding in place of the winter/spring bedding. I did that the first time about 3 years ago when they still hadn't died down at the end of May. I felt it was a shame to remove them while they were still green & showing very little signs of dying down for their summer rest. They survived all the heavy summer watering & flowered very well the following couple of springs!

Last autumn I decided the compost was exhausted & probably full of fertilizer residues from the last 3 or 4 years & needed changing. In October I emptied them all out & removed all the bulbs, many of which had started to grow roots, I bagged up all the old compost & replaced it with fresh new bags of compost. None of the bulbs, which I had replanted, seemed to mind the the disturbance just as they were starting to grow again & have flowered very well this spring & all of them are looking very healthy! :-))

found enough bulbs to cram two troughs, plus more in smaller pots and yet more to give away - they were still green, but it was dig up and immediately replant, so I hope they didn't notice!

I usually put a layer of bark in the bottom of the troughts to act as drainage and to add a bit of nutrient to the compost as it breaks down, and another layer on top, for protection from cold and squirrels.