Crocuses are known to be winter flowering plants. However, you can see these gorgeous flowers peeking out from under the snow at the end of winter, long before the spring flowers start to bloom. However, if you live in a climate where it snows infrequently when they bloom, a question may arise. There are also several types of crocuses that will bloom differently depending on your climate.
Before we go deeper, we note that there are more than 100 varieties and types of crocuses. Therefore, the timing of flowering will vary slightly depending on the climatic preferences of each person. You can see flowers in early October in Aegina, Greece, but not in Illinois in early March. In addition, there are species that bloom in autumn.
There are three main types of crocuses: Dutch crocuses (blooming in spring), golden crocuses (blooming in late winter) and autumn blooming (including saffron and Crocus speciosus).
The general flowering time of spring crocuses can be any time from October to May. Autumn flowering of plants lasts from October to early December, and in temperate regions, Dutch crocuses can bloom as early as January. Only spring flowers will begin to appear in March and may last until May at the latest.
One of the interesting things about crocuses is that you can look at the area or pot where the bulbs are planted and see absolutely no sign of the plant. Then bam! The flowers bloomed the next day. Flowers and leaves emerge from the soil at the same time, so you may not even know the bulbs have taken root and started growing until your ankles are in bloom. Provided the plant has not been injured, each bulb will bloom in quick succession.
It should be noted that crocuses are an excellent choice for bee and pollinator gardens. They first provide bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinators with the early food they need to survive late winter.
Crocuses are great houseplants and you can really get them to bloom. In fact, these are some of the easiest indoor hardy bulbs to grow. White Flower Farm provides a pretty good tutorial on how to do this.
Because crocuses are low maintenance and extremely hardy, they usually bloom without problems. However, if you find that you don’t, there are some underlying causes that you can address and encourage them to bloom again.
Post time: Mar-13-2023