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Meet Crocus

Every spring we find ourselves regretting that we did not plant more of these charmers now emerging in quick succession. Look closely and you'll see native bees feasting within their tiny cupped blossoms.
Crocus
Crocuses are flowers for up close viewing unless you have masses,

Every spring we find ourselves regretting that we did not plant more of these charmers now emerging in quick succession. Look closely and you'll see native bees feasting within their tiny cupped blossoms.

Crocuses are flowers for up close viewing unless you have masses. Plant a few corms in a cluster along the front of your walkway to greet you in March. Tuck a handful of corms in a rockery or into the winter planter. Plant a concentration of them in a small shallow bowl by the door. Bonus, several species have a habit of throwing up several blooms on one stem.

Want drama? Buy one or two bags of 100 corms, toss them along your flower border, and spade them into the soil where they land. They only need to be planted seven cm deep, easily done with a hand trowel. The first year you will have that number of blossoms. But they do multiply on their own each year. In a few years you will have a bed filled with blooms when little else shows. Best of all, the leaves dry into thread-like strands that tuck easily under plants that emerge a few weeks later.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of the ‘meet series’ of columns and articles from the South Delta Garden Club, a weekly online feature in the Delta Optimist.