"Weedy" Crocus

Mark McDonough antennaria@charter.net
Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:48:44 PDT
I'm having quite good luck "naturalizing" crocus with a little bit of 
seed-assistance.  Most years, a large bounty of seed is produced on the 
beautiful C. angustifolius (golden yellow, brown-striped on the 
outside), the capsules produces on stalks above ground making them easy 
to notice and harvest.  Various forms of the exquisite C. malyi 
similarly produces lots of seed, as do the many named cultivars of C. 
chrysanthus (the latter, one needs to looks just at or below ground 
level).

By "seed-assistance", I refer to the annual practice of gathering the 
seed, then sowing the seed "in situ" in various parts of the garden, 
just scratching them in.  I've always had miserable results sowing 
Crocus in small pots, but harvesting the seed of Crocus and many other 
plants and scratching them directly into the ground has given results 
far better than I ever imagined... a lazy man's dream come true.

It's still early in the season here, just a few crocus species starting 
to bloom, then set back with the return of snow and cold weather, but 
here's a look at some Crocus blooming a couple days ago.  It's really 
fun with the C. chysanthus seedlings, as they hybridize readily, with 
all sorts of interesting color combinations and forms.
NARGS Forum links, click any image to enlarge it.
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php/…
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php/…

PS: in spite of the topic title, none of these crocusy delights are 
"weedy" in the customary sense ;-)

Mark McDonough
antennaria@charter.net
Massachusetts, USA, USDA Zone 5


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