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How to Grow Crocuses: The Complete Crocus Flower Guide

Photo Credit
Pixabay
Botanical Name
Crocus
Plant Type
Flowers
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
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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, 11/04/2013 - 15:19

Saffron Crocus is hardy for your zone (7b). Most nursuries ship in September; plant as soon as you receive. See more about growing this bulb: http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/910891-product.html#

 <span>Debbie Ritter</span> Tue, 10/29/2013 - 20:27
I would like to blanket my front lawn with crocus - I ordered 1000 bulbs and wonder if you have any shortcuts or suggestions on how to plant this many bulbs. Thanks!
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Thu, 10/31/2013 - 18:05

To plant your lawn with large swaths of bulbs, use a spade to dig out a planting block to the correct depth, position the bulbs and then replace the excavated soil.

 <span>Anne Evanco</span> Sun, 09/29/2013 - 06:20
After the crocus blooms and the leaves turn yellow and brown, I understand that you're not supposed to cut the leaves. Can I lay pine straw over the leaves so I don't have the see the yellow leaves? Thank you.
<span>Momma_Bear</span> Fri, 03/21/2014 - 23:59
I apologize - I must have misread your question the first time. After the leaves have turned yellow and/or brown, you MAY go ahead and cut them down (or now them if they're growing in a lawn). The key with most bulbs is to allow the leaves to complete their cycle, as tang is what replenishes the bulb for the following year. It sounds like you already knew this, so I do apologize once again for my first unhelpful comment. Happy growing !!
<span>Momma_Bear</span> Mon, 09/30/2013 - 12:40
No, you should not cover the foliage with straw. The leaves need the sunshine to be able to feed the bulb, to allow it to multiply and for the following year's bloom. Covering with straw would block the sunshine and be as bad as cutting it back. You can hide unsightly foliage by planting annuals in front of it. Or, another thing you can do is gather a clump of leaves and tie them together in a knot to make neat bundles. I don't bother doing this with my crocuses, as their foliage doesn't last long enough to bother me, but I do do this with my daffodils, which have foliage that lasts well into June and sometimes July. Good luck :)
<span>Karna Robbins</span> Fri, 09/27/2013 - 11:48
The fall we after bought our house and tilled our garden 6+ inches (to amend the soil and plant irises) we discovered a couple of spots where bulbs had been previously planted, obviously very deeply. The flowers look just like light purple crocuses. We live in a zone that is 4b-5a (4a-b growing season with 5a summer heat) and in the last 8 years those flowers continue to bloom, but have NEVER had foliage. I'm mystified! Is there a crocus that doesn't produce foliage or could that be the depth issue?
<span>Sharon Morse</span> Tue, 09/09/2014 - 12:13
I moved to Vancouver, WA from Southern California last fall. Yesterday, I noticed crocus' popping up in my yard in various places. Its zone 8 here and the end of summer. These have no leaves just as you described and pale purple flowers. Very pretty. How to I care for them now that they are blooming in 70-80 degree weather?
<a title="View user profile." href="/author/editors">The Editors</a> Sat, 09/28/2013 - 10:22
Fall-blooming crocuses produce their flowers without any foliage; the leaves appear in spring.
<span>Neumann</span> Wed, 07/31/2013 - 10:22
Can the crocus plant be used as a color die?