Growing Guide
 
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Crocus hybrids

Spring-Flowering Bulb

Crocus sp.
Iridaceae Family

Early-spring favorites, hybrid crocuses carpet the ground with blooms in shades of white, purple, yellow and orange.

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Site Characteristics
Sunlight:
  • full sun
  • part shade

Soil conditions:

  • requires well-drained soil

Hardiness zones:

  • 3 to 8

Special locations:

  • outdoor containers
  • rock gardens
  • indoors as a houseplant
Plant Traits

Lifecycle: perennial

Ease-of-care: easy

Height: 0.25 to 0.3 feet

Spread: 0.25 to 0.3 feet

Bloom time: early spring

Flower color:

  • orange
  • yellow
  • violet
  • white

Blooms may be a single color, bicolors, or marked with striping and mottling.

Foliage color: medium green

Foliage texture: fine

Shape:

  • spreading mass
  • upright
  • grass-like

Individual plants are upright and grass-like, but spread to form large clumps.

Shape in flower: flower stalks with upright spikes

Special Considerations
Special characteristics:
  • non-aggressive - Plants spread to form large clumps, but are not usually a nuisance.
  • non-invasive
  • not native to North America - Products of horticultural breeding
  • fragrant - Blooms are sweetly fragrant.
Special uses:
  • naturalistic garden
Growing Information
How to plant:

Propagate by division or separation - Divide in early fall.

Maintenance and care:
Plant the corms 2" below the surface of the ground.

When forcing these bulbs, do not move them into a warm location until the flower buds show some color. Moving them earlier may result in failure to flower.

More growing information: How to Grow Bulbs

Varieties
'Blue Pearl': pale purple/blue blooms with yellow throats.

'Cream Beauty': very hardy plants with yellow throated creamy white blooms.

'Dutch Yellow': large, vivid yellow blooms with darker yellow striping near their bases.

'E.A. Bowles': dark golden yellow blooms with darker golden striping at their bases.

'Ladykiller': white blooms with purple outsides.

'Snow Bunting': pure white blooms.

'Zwanenburg': pale blue/purple blooms with darker purple spotting inside and flushed with gold.

'Zwanenburg Bronze': yellow blooms flushed with bronze on their outsides.