Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: 200 large purple crocus  (Read 10416 times)

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
200 large purple crocus
« on: November 06, 2007, 10:26:13 am »
The other day I purchased and planted 200 of the giant purple crocus for the bees, of course.  It should look really pretty, I put them all in a garden spot that is right infront of the apiary.  The bees will only have to travel about 15 feet to get the pollen from these pretties.  I hope that they do give alot of that early spring food for them.  I will take pictures when they bloom?  No clue when, but I suspect pretty early in the year.  Yeah!!!  Have a wonderful and beautiful day.

Right, question......do the crocus multiply underground like alot of other bulbs do?  I know the grape hyacinth I can't even begin to keep under control because I think they are breeding underground like there was no tomorrow, and the white and bluebells, I can't keep them under control either, I keep digging up hundreds of bulbs every year and putting them into the compost pile.  Where they keep propogating, what the heck is with these invasive bulbs anyways?  Heeee, heee, C.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline reinbeau

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2504
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2007, 09:21:05 pm »
Crocus aren't as virulent as grape hyacinths but yes, they will multiply underground, and also by seed.  The by seed ones can be interesting, you never know what color you'll end up with, even though you start with all purple!  Judging by what you say about your climate, I would think those will bloom for you at around the end of February, or maybe the beginning of March.  Let us know!  :)

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2007, 11:15:19 pm »
Ann, oh brother, funny, I know flowers set seeds, but I honestly never thought that a crocus would produce seed(s).  Gonna attempt that one and see what colours I might come up with the following year, would be a fun thing.  Have a wonderful and beautiful life.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline KONASDAD

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2011
  • Gender: Male
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2007, 04:09:16 pm »
If they get early season sun exposure, they bloom very early. They produe a fair amount of pollen. Sometimes they peek out of snow! My bees prefer Heather over the crocus when they overlap w/ blooms. Heather blooms first , grecian windflowers, poppy anenomies and then crocus here. All overlapping a wee bit.
"The more complex the Mind, the Greater the need for the simplicity of Play".

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 716
  • Gender: Male
    • Biodiverse Gardens
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2007, 04:24:41 pm »
I wonder if someone around here has Crocus growing. That would explain the bright orange pollen my bees were pulling in last spring.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Bees/Pollen2.jpg

Offline KONASDAD

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2011
  • Gender: Male
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2007, 05:26:56 pm »
I wonder if someone around here has Crocus growing. That would explain the bright orange pollen my bees were pulling in last spring.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Bees/Pollen2.jpg

They are a very common spring flower around our neck of the woods. I hav'em planted in my grass. They just pop up and you mow'em down w/ first mowing. No harm. You havem in your neighborhood w/o a doubt!
"The more complex the Mind, the Greater the need for the simplicity of Play".

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 716
  • Gender: Male
    • Biodiverse Gardens
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2007, 06:38:06 pm »
I wonder if someone around here has Crocus growing. That would explain the bright orange pollen my bees were pulling in last spring.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Bees/Pollen2.jpg

They are a very common spring flower around our neck of the woods. I hav'em planted in my grass. They just pop up and you mow'em down w/ first mowing. No harm. You havem in your neighborhood w/o a doubt!

That actually sounds like a great idea. I don't suppose you've ever had them bloom when there's still snow on the ground. I envision that to be very pretty.

Offline KONASDAD

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2011
  • Gender: Male
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2007, 10:57:55 am »
They will pop up if you get a few days of unseasonably warm weather w/ lots of sun, followed by that late season March snow. It is a beautuful thing to see. You'll see'em poke up in sunny areas first, then under trees and side yards and the like. I just use a bulb spike into ground, push the bulb in and move on. They are very hardy. Squirells will eat a few, but usually just mov'em somehwere else. They aren't invasive like muscari but do naturalize a little bit w/ time and good conditions.
"The more complex the Mind, the Greater the need for the simplicity of Play".

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2007, 11:05:44 am »
Konasdad.  I meant to mention that I bet your place looks very beautiful with these little pretties coming up in the spring.  Naturalizing in the lawn is a spectacular way to display these.  You have got that one going on great!!!!  How did you get them under your lawn?  Did you like dig little holes and poke them in?  I think that might be a fun thing to do, would areate the lawn too,  ;) :)  I still might go and get more little bulbs, we have yet time to plant these pretties.  Have a wonderful and beautiful day, great health and life.  Cindi

Did you get up your asparagus crowns yet?  Can't remember, maybe you said you were going to do it this weekend, let us know how it goes eh?  C.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Brian D. Bray

  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Galactic Bee
  • ********
  • Posts: 7369
  • Gender: Male
  • I really look like this, just ask Cindi.
    • http://spaces.msn.com/thecoonsden
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2007, 09:54:54 pm »
My Crocus are getting ready to bloom for the 4th time this year.  Should have Crocus blooms for Christmas.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #10 on: November 11, 2007, 03:27:13 pm »
Brian, what on earth is going on at your place?!!!! :) ;) :)  I didn't even realize that crocus would bloom more than once a year, special variety (or are you breeding hybrid, big, strange flowers too, hmmmm..... :).  That is very cool, maybe the drought that you experienced forced them into believing they had to bloom again.  That is weird, but wonderful, enjoy this beautiful and great day.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline Brian D. Bray

  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Galactic Bee
  • ********
  • Posts: 7369
  • Gender: Male
  • I really look like this, just ask Cindi.
    • http://spaces.msn.com/thecoonsden
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2007, 10:06:50 pm »
Some of it is attribuatable to different beds planted at different times.  Even at that the bed of Crocus by the road flowered 3 times.  My wife loves Crocus and in places the bulbs have grown into a solid carpet (she still has 200 more Crocus bulbs to plant).  The only ones that haven't done well are the ones by the well house where the dog insists of bedding down during the day.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #12 on: November 12, 2007, 10:21:21 am »
Brian, what a lovely picture you have painted.  I can bet it is something to see, beautiful.  Have a wonderful and greatest day.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 716
  • Gender: Male
    • Biodiverse Gardens
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #13 on: November 12, 2007, 10:25:53 pm »
You've all convinced me to buy 100 bulbs myself. And at $10 for the hundred I think it's a great buy.
http://www.hollandbulbfarms.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=18916&JumboPacks~Ruby_Giant_Crocus-_Jumbo_Pack

I'll be planting them in the yard directly I think since the current garden is full. About how many months do they last?

Offline reinbeau

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2504
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #14 on: November 13, 2007, 09:14:45 am »
You've all convinced me to buy 100 bulbs myself. And at $10 for the hundred I think it's a great buy.
http://www.hollandbulbfarms.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=18916&JumboPacks~Ruby_Giant_Crocus-_Jumbo_Pack

I'll be planting them in the yard directly I think since the current garden is full. About how many months do they last?
Months?  Crocus flowers open for around two to three weeks during the spring, then the foliage needs to 'ripen' until it turns brown to nourish the bulbs for next season's blooms.  Usually a couple of months or so.

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 716
  • Gender: Male
    • Biodiverse Gardens
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #15 on: February 10, 2008, 12:32:23 am »
They're starting to poke out of the ground now. I planted 200 all together, 100 ruby red, and 100 blue ones. the red went into the lawn while the blue went into a soon to be garden. A bit of a story behind this, my dad has an old boat in the yard on a trailer and I wanted it out to make way for more gardening and flowering trees. Well I told him I wanted it out of the yard before February becuase of the Crocuses (Crocus?) and since they started coming up I devoted my day off to clearing everything out of the way, taking a fence out to get the car back there, and moving other things around.
So he gets home and we get started immediately. Maneuvering the Durango proved to be much harder then I had expected. He almost ran over the Golden Rain Tree sapling but I stood over it so he wouldn't. We get the boat hitched and in order to get out of the yard he has to go around our apple tree (only 7feet tall purchased over the summer). So he turns but then he runs into another garden around our patio. I stop him and dig out some Black Jack Sedum. He makes the turn and begins driving out of the yard but I don't like the angle of the tree with the boat. So I dug out the apple tree. He starts moving again and BANG! The boat fell in the hole I dug and became unhitched. Digging it out was a simple matter and we did get it out of the yard.
The things I do in the name of Bees and nature still surprises me. A year ago I would not have cared about this sort of thing.

Offline Cindi

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 9825
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #16 on: February 10, 2008, 09:44:05 am »
Milta.  There said it, so much simpler than MrILoveTheAnts, hee, hee.  You are a'goin' gung ho at your place, wow, good for you, look at all what you are growing, cultivating and now getting your Dad to move his ugly ol' boat. Wow, you must be a very convincing person, yeah!!!!

We still have snow on our ground, so I can't even see the earth around the apiary yet, but I imagine with the extremely fast lengthening days they will be poking out soon...the snow is melting like fast, fast, fast, it is 6 C this morning at 5:00 (that be 42F), it will get even much more warm as the day progresses.  Have a wonderful and great day, love our life we're livin'.  Cindi
There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.  The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold.  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee.  Robert Service

Offline MrILoveTheAnts

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 716
  • Gender: Male
    • Biodiverse Gardens
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #17 on: March 03, 2008, 06:36:04 pm »
So much for Blue. 
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Plants/CrocusWhite.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Plants/Crocus.jpg

The orange is such an unbelievable intense color that it's hard even notice if it's in focus or not.

Offline reinbeau

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 2504
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #18 on: March 03, 2008, 10:14:28 pm »
Volunteers are great, aren't they?  :lol:  Are the white ones larger than the others?

Offline Kimbrell

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 198
  • Gender: Female
Re: 200 large purple crocus
« Reply #19 on: March 03, 2008, 11:03:31 pm »
I have enjoyed this thread.  Lovely pictures.  I haven't seen anyone mention the problem I have with crocus.  I have planted hundreds of bulbs.  They come up once and then disappear.  I tend to blame the squirrels or moles, but have no proof.  Any ideas? :?