lawns – greenbenchramblings

The Crocus Lawn

A speaker at one of Shropshire Hardy Plant Society meetings showed photographs of a feature in his own garden that was completely new to us. A crocus lawn. We were so impressed that we immediately ordered 500 bulbs.

It was a slow job planting each one individually. We wanted it to look natural so we scattered the bulbs from a height and planted them where they landed, resisting the temptation to move individuals that were clumped too closely or to fill gaps.

In mid-March things were beginning to get tense as the crocus flowers were patiently waiting for some sunshine to force the buds open. They just stood bolt upright among the grass of the lawn their colours hinting at what we hoped to be enjoying soon.

Close up we could see the beauty of the individual flowers. We just needed a day of sunshine and a bit of warmth for them to open their hearts to us. Fingers crossed firmly!

We didn’t have to wait too long! A day dawned with blue sky above and the sun glowing. In the earlier hours of the day the morning sun glowed but gave heat out that was too weak to reach us as warmth. As the afternoon arrived though, the temperatures rose to the giddy heights of 6 degrees Celsius for a few hours but it was enough to warm our backs and excite the crocus buds into opening. At last we got the opportunity to see if our crocus lawn project was worthwhile.

Ah sweet success! How satisfying!

We have a bag of crocus “in the green” waiting to be added too. We can use them to fill in obvious gaps – next year should then be even better!

I can’t resist putting together portraits of a couple of the crocus in bud and in flower.

Firstly the purple bloom with its orange peel centre …..

….. and then the striped purple and white barley twist blossom.

I wonder – should we call it our “Crocus Lawn” or our “Crocus Meadow”? Any thoughts?

On the morning when I was going to post this crocus lawn post, we woke to another few inches of snow, all very unexpected and not forecast. The white covering gave the crocus lawn a whole new look. The crocus flowers were given a new backdrop against which to perform.