Fw: Crocus
Pacific Rim (Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:51:13 PST)

Diana, you are in northern California while I am in southern British
Columbia. The difference in rainfall is considerable, which is why I haven't
piped up till now. But perhaps my experience could be faintly useful.

When I have only a few Crocus, or very expensive ones, I grow them in pots
in a frame. I'm not sure they wouldn't prefer what I do with the rest,
however. When I have more than a handful, I consign them to raised beds of
road mulch, unsheltered year-round and watered only by rain. They are wet
but not soggy from fall through spring. In summer they dry gradually, but
the middle and bottom, where the corms hibernate, stay cool and faintly
moist. In these conditions, every Crocus I have dared to try has multiplied.
Lots of them are on my website. The very easiest and most fecund have been
C. dalmaticus Petrovac Strain, C.tommasinianus 'Albus,' C. versicolor, C.
vitellinus and C. x jessopae. They are all beautiful and I would be happy to
send you starts of them this fall, if you want.

Best

Paige

Paige Woodward
paige@hillkeep.ca
http://www.hillkeep.ca/