BOTANICAL: Crocus

PRONOUNCED: KROH-kus

COMMON: Crocus BLOOM HEIGHT LIGHT ZONE Early to mid-spring 2" - 4" Full sun 3 - 9 TYPE: Corm COLORS: White, purple, lavender, orange, yellow or gold. COMMENTS: Plant 5-inches deep in the fall. Excellent in pots, in the lawn and the mixed border. Very easy to grow requiring little or no attention. One of the first spring flowers to bloom. Congested clumps may need to be dug and divided. This should be performed after the leaves have withered. There are numerous cultivars available: C. chrysanthus. Many chalice-shaped, stemless flowers emerge from each tiny bulb before the 4 to 6 white-lined, grassy leaves develop. Colonize readily in dense masses. Crocus speciosus is one of the easiest autumn crocus to grow. It has attractive, striped, funnel-shaped, 2 -1/2 inch fragrant blossoms. The stigma becomes deep orange-red. Most flowers appear either before or with the emerging leaves. C. tommasinianus, another late winter bloomer, bears long, tubed flowers, varying in color from lilac or purple to violet, sometimes with darker tips to the petals, and occasionally silver outside. Naturalize well. C. vernus, a Dutch crocus is a late winter bloomer and varies in color from white to purple or violet, often striped or feathered. Stigmas are large, frilly and orange or yellow.