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How to Grow Crocuses: The Complete Crocus Flower Guide

Photo Credit
Pixabay
Botanical Name
Crocus
Plant Type
Bulbs
Sun Exposure
Full Sun
Part Sun
Bloom Time
Spring
Winter
Flower Color
Blue
Orange
Pink
Purple
White
Yellow
Hardiness Zone
3
4
5
6
7
8

Planting, Growing, and Caring for Crocuses

Written By: Catherine Boeckmann Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Crocuses are critter-resistant bulbs that are a welcome sight in spring! Just when it seems like winter will never lose its icy grip, the dainty crocus pushes through the snow to put on a show of colorful revival. Here’s more on how to plant and grow crocuses, a pollinator favorite!

About Crocuses

From snow crocuses (the first to bloom) to giant Dutch crocuses, all just 2 to 4 inches tall, these blooms offer a variety of colors (blues, oranges, pinks, purples, reds, yellows, and more) that stand out against the bleak late-winter landscape. Many have strong perfumes that lure bees out of their hives in February or March, too, providing the pollinators with an important early-spring food source.

Crocuses not only provide winter garden color but also naturalize, meaning that they spread and come back year after year—with minimal care—for an ever-larger display. As a bonus, deer, squirrels, and rabbits rarely bother early little crocus corms.

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Planting

Crocuses do best in a spot that gets full sun (6+ hours of direct sunlight), but will grow in partial sun as well. Choose a planting site where there is well-draining soil; the corms will rot in soggy, compacted ground. Before planting, work in organic matter such as compost to a depth of at least 10 inches.

When to Plant Crocuses

  • Crocuses need to experience an extended period of cold weather in order to bloom, so plant them in the fall to get spring blooms.
  • Before the ground freezes in the fall, crocus corms can be planted most anywhere, except in the dense shade on the north side of buildings or under thickets.
  • Ideally, plant crocus corms 6 to 8 weeks before a hard frost is expected in the fall and when the soil temperature is below 60°F (16°C). This is usually during September or October in the northern U.S. and Canada, and October or November in the southern United States.

How to Plant Crocuses

  • Plant crocus corms 3 to 4 inches deep (with the pointy end up). After planting, water well.
  • Plant bulbs in groups or clusters rather than spacing them in a single line along a walkway or border. Single flowers get lost in the landscape. Plant a few inches apart, and plant in groups of 10 or more.
  • Consider planting crocuses in lawns and meadows where they can form carpets, or mass them in the front of flower beds along the edge.
  • Plant taller spring-flowering bulbs and shrubs behind the early bulbs for color contrast.

→ Learn more about planting fall bulbs.

Crocus field
A carpet of crocuses makes for a wonderful spring sight!

Growing

  • Apply a balanced fertilizer in early autumn if your spring is short and the days heat up fast; or apply fertilizer after bulbs flower in late winter if your spring is long and temperate. The crocuses will have a chance to use the extra nutrients to produce bigger carbohydrate stores.
  • Through the autumn, keep crocus beds watered if the weather gets dry, but do not waterlog the soil. Cover the beds with mulch before the winter.
  • In late February, remove heavy mulches from snowdrops and crocuses so that the shoots can come through. Leave a light layer of leaves to provide late-season protection from frost.
  • In February and March, keep plastic milk jugs or other coverings on hand to protect the flowers of crocuses and other early bloomers against the return of severe weather.
  • If you have crocuses growing in your lawn in mid-spring, don’t mow until their leaves have died down.

Types

  • ‘Bowles White’ produces white flowers with deep golden yellow throats in early spring. It grows 2 to 3 inches tall.
  • ’Flower Record’ has single pale violet flowers in spring to early summer. It grows 4 to 5 inches tall.
  • ’Pickwick’ is a striped crocus with alternating pale and dark lilac and dark purple bases. It’s 4 to 5 inches tall and blooms in spring to early summer.
  • ’Tricolor Crocus’ is a beauty. Each narrow flower has three distinct bands of lilac, white, and golden yellow. It grows 3 inches tall and blooms in late winter and early spring.
  • ’Purpureus Grandiflorus’ has abundance violet flowers with purple bases. It grows 4 to 5 inches tall and blooms spring to early summer.
Crocuses in Snow
Crocuses peeking up through the snow.

Gardening Products

Pests/Diseases

  • Mice, voles, and squirrels may feed on the corms. If they are a problem, consider planting crocuses in buried wire cages.
  • Birds sometimes pick off the flowers.
  • Corms in storage are prone to rot and molds if kept too moist.

Wit and Wisdom

And all the woods are alive with the murmur and sound of Spring,
And the rose-bud breaks into pink on the climbing briar,
And the crocus-bed is a quivering moon of fire
Girdled round with the belt of an amethyst ring.
–Oscar Wilde

Bulbs
About The Author
Catherine Boeckmann

Catherine Boeckmann

Executive Digital Editor and Master Gardener

Catherine Boeckmann is the Executive Digital Editor of Almanac.com, the website companion of The Old Farmer's Almanac. She covers gardening, plants, pest control, soil composition, seasonal and moon c...
Read More from Catherine Boeckmann

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Comments

<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 04/15/2013 - 17:31
Are they in the shade? Sometimes crocus bulbs do not flower due to lack of sunlight.
<span>Anonymous</span> Thu, 05/09/2013 - 16:20
That just totally answered what I was about to ask. Only it doesn't explain why a single crocus (which I planted with many others about four years ago) is blooming now.
<span>Anonymous</span> Wed, 04/10/2013 - 11:02
When can you dig up and divide the corms for replanting?
<span>Momma_Bear</span> Sat, 03/22/2014 - 00:31
I believe that you meant to say "plant crocus in the FALL", not "in the spring", didn't you?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Wed, 04/10/2013 - 14:47
Do not dig up the corms until the foliage has turned yellow and withers. After you carefully dig them up, let them sit in indirect sunlight for 2 to 3 weeks. Then, gently separate the new corms that grow on the old corms, dust with fungicide, and store in a cool, dry place away from sunlight, preferably 60 to 65 degrees F. until planting time. Plant crocus in the spring. Note that crocus can be refrigerated at 40 degrees F. for two months prior to planting or potting.
<span>Anonymous</span> Fri, 04/05/2013 - 22:53
I live in Zone 5. The crocus I planted in Fall of 2011 bloomed in spring 2012 but haven't come back yet, don't really see leaves poking out either. Yet, the crocus I planted in Fall of 2012 have bloomed nicely so far this spring. Is there a chance the crocus that didn't bloom this spring might bloom next year? I just wonder why they didn't return. What are some of the reasons the crocus didn't return/naturalize. Could it have something to do with the planted depth? Maybe they weren't planted deep enough to naturalize? Would that cause a problem?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Mon, 04/08/2013 - 12:52
You might give the older crocuses a little more time to pop up; weather or other environmental stress from last growing season may have delayed them a few weeks. If there are no signs of leaves, it is possible that rodents damaged the bulbs (or actually, corms). To avoid them nibbling in future, place wire mesh around bulbs at planting time. Pea gravel sometimes helps, too. In general, plant bulbs twice as deep as the bulbs are tall. Make sure the bulbs are not crowded. Keep up with watering in dry periods, even into fall, but don't overwater. Make sure they are in a place with adequate sunlight (full sun is usually best). In Zone 5, you probably have had the chilling requirements needed over winter. Do not cut the leaves of bulbs after flowering--the bulbs need the leaves to make food to survive the winter and to bloom next year. Are the older crocuses in a different spot than the newer ones? If so, check out what possible environmental conditions may be affecting the older batch, such as shade, drainage (too close to a sprinkler?), lighting, competition with other plants (such as tree roots), etc.
<span>Anonymous</span> Wed, 03/20/2013 - 18:24
Once it blooms and the blooms dies does it continue to sprout and bloom or does it only bloom once.
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 03/21/2013 - 16:55
The crocus is a perennial. So, it will bloom once a season, but it will come back year after year in the early spring. After it blooms, it will grow and store food for a period of time before dying back to ground level and becoming dormant. They will bloom well before grass starts to grow and by the time it reaches mowing height, the crocus are finished for the season.
<span>Anonymous</span> Wed, 01/16/2013 - 10:12
what if you do plant crocuses in the middle of January in Oroville Calif?