Crocus sativus, the saffron crocus, is a hardy, autumn flowering crocus, and will survive outdoors. Just leave them as they are and the should be OK in Somerset.

Hallo Angealina, welcome to GOY from another Somerset dweller! :-))

Mine are doing exactly what yours are, and I'm hoping for some flowers soon.

Heavens. mine have finished and gone now. The leaves appear normally in Spring. The flowers appear quite suddenly almost out of no where about the end of September.

Owdboggy has just described how Crocus sativus should grow. I see that three of us on this question and Amy on a recent blog have all bought C. sativus this year that are probably not as named. We all have bulbs showing leaf as in the picture above when they should have flowers now with the leaves following later. I don't know what is being sold under this name but it is not C. sativus.
I have occaisonally bought C. sativus before and have never had any luck with it. The closest relative is C. cartwrightianus which flowers freely for me and has just about finished. This years C. sativus is just showing leaves so I will give it a warm dry dormancy next summer and see what happens, though I am not holding my breath for flowers.

That's a shame - it's the first time I've planted any, and I was hoping for flowers. :-(

Odd!
You know that if you have the right species you can have Crocus in flower every month except July?
If your Crocus do manage to flower please post a picture which includes the stamen etc. They are useful diagnostic tools for seperating the species.

OK. Will do. I'm actually very disappointed, as I planted three packets of autumn crocuses, and I got precisely 3 flowers, which fell over in the wind. :-((

The ones that fell over in the wind would have been Crocus speciosus, Spritzhenry, they do this! They will multiply up well in the garden, but still fall over. As well as having them in the garden we keep a potful in the greenhouse where they are a delight.

Thanks, Mr MB - I still have the packets, so I'll take a look. It sounds as though that was a bad choice for the open garden. :-((

I find all the autumn flowering taller growing Crocus tend to flop, even when there is no wind. Wonder what they are like in the wild?
The other one generally available is C. kotschyanus, more purple than C sativus

I've just looked at the three packets of autumn crocuses:

10 x Crocus sativus
10 x Crocus speciosus
10 x Crocus kotschyanus

Out of all those, I got three flowers of I think C. sativus.

All the packets say "Sept - Nov. flowering"

All I can say is 'Hmmmph!'

I have noticed that it has not been a good year for our autumn flowering crocus, either in pots or in the garden. Flowering has been more sparce than expected and this is with established plantings.

That's strange - trust me to try them for the first time in a bad year! Oh well - my Colchicum was beautiful.

I wonder if the time of buying/planting is also part of it? These autumn flowering bulbs can come into flower any time from September onwards and yet we do not buy or plant them until that sort of time. I have received bulbs from top growers in October when they should already be in flower. The bulbs should have roots down and be taking in water already so they are bound to be stressed.

It's a problem if I can't get hold of the bulbs until it's too late to get them to flower! That's an experiment that I don't think I'll try again. The money I spent on the bulbs, I could have had three more Colchicums!!!

I have crocus speciosus in my lawn increasing. The flower does seem to nearly always flop. It needs some form of low growing companion plant to grow up through which will help it to hold itself erect more. Does anybody know what would be suitable as a supportive companion?

Crocus speciosus is a bulb of grasslands and woodland clearings. Therefore it grows amongst longer grasses and mixed herbage in the forests.