The crocuses most commonly seen in the home are Dutch hybrids which have larger and more striking flowers than the species.
The leaves are striped green and white, and the cup-shaped flowers, which appear in winter and early spring, flowers can be white, yellow, bronze, purple, or multicolored.
Dry corns are offered for sale in late summer, and ready-planted pots are available from late fall onward. Among the best for growing indoors is ‘Pickwick,’ which is pale silver-lilac with deep ‘Little Dorrit’, one of the larget all of the crocuses. ‘Snowstorm,’ with pure white globular flowers, is free-flowering and long-lasting.
Crocus Plant FACT FILE
ORIGIN Hybrids.
HEIGHT To 4in/10cm.
POTTING MIX Soil-based.
PROPAGATION Remove small corms that may form around the parent bulb or sow seed. The seedlings will take 3-4 years to bloom.
REPOTTING Plant several corms together in early fall; set them just below the surface of the potting mixture Corms must be ‘wintered’ for about 10 weeks and brought into a warm room only when the flower buds are visible
KEEPING PLANTS After flowering, either let the corms dry out in the pot and keep them until the next fall or out in the garden. They will not bloom again indoors. It is better to mass crocuses of one variety in a shallow bowl rather than to mix them, because they tend to bloom at different times.