Crocus are one of the earliest spring flowers to bloom in the northeast and often times will stick their blossoms out when there is still snow on the ground. Crocus flowers close at night, remain tightly closed during a shady day, but when there is a bright March sunny day, the flowers are wide open displaying their bright orange stamens against their colorful petals.
As the crocus bulbs naturalize---a mass of blooming crocus on a sunny day is quite a site to behold.
As with all flowering bulbs, when crocus are finished blooming, allow their leave to grow and whither on their own. During this period of leaves only, the bulbs are recapturing the energy to go into their winter dormancy to bloom again the following year.
Interestingly, should you clip off the grassy green leaves of a crocus bulb, the bulb will likely not reappear again—so be careful when working around bulbs, which have finished blooming.
Generally when purchasing crocus bulbs at a large home improvement store, the bulbs are packaged without naming the particular varieties, however, when ordering through a garden catalog or over the internet or from a specialized garden center some specialized varieties can be purchased.
My recommendation would be to seek out the following crocus varieties:
- Crocus vernus
- Crocus chrysanthus
- Crocus tommasinianus
- Crocus sieberi
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