My First Blooms

April 6th, 2006

CrocusesTo the right you’ll see my first blooms of the year, and like most people my first blooms are crocuses. These have actually been blooming for a couple weeks but I only just got around to taking pictures because we’ve had some cold and rainy weather.

Crocuses are bulbs (technically corms but everyone calls them bulbs) that you plant like tulips (dig a hole, put it in, cover with dirt, forget about it until spring) and they’re generally the first thing that comes up each year for most gardeners. They’ll come up through the snow in some cases. There is some variety in crocuses, but mostly they come in yellow, white, and purple. They can be fairly cheap when bought in bulk. They take up practically no room in the garden and bloom at times when nothing else is in bloom, so why not grow them? They also multiply nicely year after year.

One thing I want to do one day is naturalize a lawn with crocuses. I’ve never done this but I’ve heard it can be fun. Basically you plant crocuses, hundreds or thousands, all over your lawn. They come up right through the sod each year and by the time you need to mow the grass for the first time in spring they’ve already done their show and won’t get in your way. So, in early April each year you’ll have a lawn of flowers, but then grass the rest of the time, pretty cool huh? My complaint about it is the planting, so that is why I haven’t done it. Whenever we build a house though and have to bring in sod I’m going to do it though, I’ll basically just have to toss the crocuses into the dirt and lay the sod right over it, it’ll be easy (I like easy).

So, come fall, plant a crocus or two, or three, or fifty.

Posted in: Gardening » 

2 Responses to “My First Blooms”

  1. contrary1  Says:
    April 10th, 2006 at 4:49 pm

    loved your blog. The crocus idea has always been in the back of my mind too. The visual picture would be great in the spring…….
    I have a huge mole problem here in WA state however, so I’m sure there wouldn’t be any bulbs left by spring!!! All the work and no perchance no flowers???

  2. Administrator  Says:
    April 10th, 2006 at 5:33 pm

    I have a mole problem too at my current residence, which is another reason I don’t try it now… but not for the reason you think.

    Moles don’t actually eat bulbs, they eat earthworms, grubs, and other bugs. Gophers eat bulbs, squirrels can dig them up too. Earthworms obviously are good, so its bad that moles eat them, grubs however eat plant roots, often causing bare spots in lawns.

    One way to get rid of grubs is with milky spore bacteria, which is an all natural solution that lasts for years and years and only targets grubs. However, if that isn’t your thing there are synthetic solutions sold at home & garden centers — these could also kill other things like earthworms though.

    Anyways… often if you get rid of the grubs you’ll get rid of the moles. Hasn’t worked for me yet but that is what I hear.

    What I really hate about moles is the barespots they make by pushing up mounds of dirt, the raised tunnels, etc. They don’t actually eat plants, but putting those gapping gaps in the soil has to stress plant roots eventually.

    Assuming what you actually have is gophers and not moles, one solution is to plant daffodils. They’re toxic to gophers and so they act as a repellent (kinda like using marigolds around the border of your veggies to repel rabbits).

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