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Shelley 21-03-2004 03:53 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 
Hi there. While out walking yesterday my husband and I passed by a lawn
that was full of crocus flowers and we just loved it. I was just wondering.
Are there any downfalls to planting these little bulbs in your lawn? Do
they spread like the dickens and we'd eventually have only crocuses? It
just looked so nice and so colorful for the brown-lawn time of year so I had
to ask. Also, if we decide to plant these little bulbs next fall so that we
can have a lawn like this, how deep do you plant them? I visited a number
of websites but nobody said how deep to put the bulbs. Thanks for your
help!

Shelley



Brian 21-03-2004 04:04 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 

The only downside is that the lawn with the crocus leaves cannot be cut for
a minimum of 42 days after flowering has finished~~ as with all bulbous
plants, even if still green~ surprisingly.
They will not increase more than you wish and certainly will not get out of
control. The clumps will just thicken and become more floriferous. Similar
to daffodils.
A general guide for all similar planting is at 2 or 3 the times their
own size. This generally holds for seeds also.
Best Wishes.
"Shelley" wrote in message
news:82h7c.53549$_w.851264@attbi_s53...
Hi there. While out walking yesterday my husband and I passed by a lawn
that was full of crocus flowers and we just loved it. I was just

wondering.
Are there any downfalls to planting these little bulbs in your lawn? Do
they spread like the dickens and we'd eventually have only crocuses? It
just looked so nice and so colorful for the brown-lawn time of year so I

had
to ask. Also, if we decide to plant these little bulbs next fall so that

we
can have a lawn like this, how deep do you plant them? I visited a number
of websites but nobody said how deep to put the bulbs. Thanks for your
help!

Shelley





[email protected] 21-03-2004 05:36 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 
we like the little scillas in the lawn the best.
http://www.johnscheepers.com/catview...ategory=Scilla
their leaves spread out so the lawn can be mowed before the leaves are actually done
packing away food for the next spring. also, surprisingly, they can get walked on
while coming up and bloom just fine. I just use a big screwdriver in fall, punch it
down wiggle, pullit out and drop a little bulb down in there. feeding the lawn is
good early, it also feeds the flowers. they really dont need to be very deeply
planted at all. they say to plant 4" to 5" deep but I am sure mine are more like
2-3" deep and do fine. Ingrid

"Shelley" wrote:

Hi there. While out walking yesterday my husband and I passed by a lawn
that was full of crocus flowers and we just loved it. I was just wondering.
Are there any downfalls to planting these little bulbs in your lawn? Do
they spread like the dickens and we'd eventually have only crocuses? It
just looked so nice and so colorful for the brown-lawn time of year so I had
to ask. Also, if we decide to plant these little bulbs next fall so that we
can have a lawn like this, how deep do you plant them? I visited a number
of websites but nobody said how deep to put the bulbs. Thanks for your
help!

Shelley




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Solve the problem, dont waste energy finding who's to blame
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unfortunately, I receive no money, gifts, discounts or other
compensation for all the damn work I do, nor for any of the
endorsements or recommendations I make.

H Hornblower 21-03-2004 06:03 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 
I've been planting bulbs in my lawn in Ohio for years. None of
them spread quickly if at all. I leave off mowing as long as I can
stand it or untill the leaves start to wither. The earliest blooming
varieties work best as they will wither first. Plant lots of them
close together or they're hard to see.
I use and adzlike tool in the fall to plant them. A single
chopping stroke and pull the turf up a bit and put the bulb under it
before tamping it back down.

paghat 21-03-2004 07:32 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 
In article 82h7c.53549$_w.851264@attbi_s53, "Shelley"
wrote:

Hi there. While out walking yesterday my husband and I passed by a lawn
that was full of crocus flowers and we just loved it. I was just wondering.
Are there any downfalls to planting these little bulbs in your lawn?


The drawback is they're not going to be showy if you actually walk on your
grass. You can't walk on flowering crocuses & expect them to look like
much a second later. If there are places around the lawn you never walk on
or sit on or roll around on with the dog, then that is no drawback in that
spot.

The second drawback is if you want the crocuses to naturalize & do very
well, you may be unable to mow your lawn in spring until it is a full foot
tall. The first mowing of the season cannot be so early that it cuts the
post-bloom crocus grass, which is invisible because it looks just like the
grass, but during the post-bloom that crocus-grass puts on a new burst of
growth to eight or ten inches height & recharges the bulb for the next
year. If it gets mowed too soon, the bulbs decline instead of increasing
in vigor & producing offsets. In colder areas where the crocuses bloom as
late as April & the grass is recharging the bulb in May, this could mean
not being able to mow the lawn until almost June! Where crocuses bloom
late February & March it's not so much a problem as the lawn's turf won't
start growing until late in March anyway, & letting it grow a little long
through much of April is no big deal unless one is a lawn fanatic who
needs it constantly short-short.

Do
they spread like the dickens and we'd eventually have only crocuses?


Most crocus cultivars won't spread as much as one would like really, but
they do spread. They never really out-compete sod but merely manage to
hold their own, so very compatible with grass, though grass has the
greater competitive value & occasionally crocuses can't quite fully
naturalize. Some crocuses are either too small to show themselves well in
turf, or a bit delicate if competing with grass for nutrients. One that
spreads well in grass is Crocus tommasianna "Ruby Giant." It's a bit small
(despite the name "giant") but not as small as other tommies. You have to
make sure the grass was well-mowed by the time it stops growing in
autumn/winter so that by the time the tommies erupt in late winter,
they're not lost in grass that was never mowed. They self-seed better than
most crocuses so eventually their numbers will be great enough to be showy
despite their size.

Exactly when they bloom varies from season to season; in our zone tommies
bloom February & early March. But the grass can't be mowed until April's
end if the tommies are to fully perennialize, though if you can get "wild"
tommies (they're smaller & have no cultivar name) their crocus-glass lies
flat almost like it knows a lawnmower could be coming by.

A crocus that is immediately showier in grass is the blue & yellow C.
sieberi "Firefly." It's maybe twice the size of the tommy, & blooms a few
weeks earlier, meaning you'll be able to finally mow the lawn a bit
earlier too, but the rule of thumb is you can't mow until the crocuses
have stopped blooming for at least a month.

It
just looked so nice and so colorful for the brown-lawn time of year so I had
to ask. Also, if we decide to plant these little bulbs next fall so that we
can have a lawn like this, how deep do you plant them?


Not all crocuses are planted exactly the same depth. The usual instruction
is three to four inches deep. When in grass they should go the deepest
recommended so they're not exclusively in lawn roots. If you have mice or
squirrels who're prone to searching in lawns for bulbs, then make them
closer to 5" deep & after you've put the corm in the dibbled hole, put a
little topsoil mixed with bloodmeal over the top of the crocus. The
bloodmeal will fertilize the bulb but the real purpose is to make it not
smell like something edible to squirrels & mice. The bulbs are most apt to
be dug up & eaten when first planted because that's when the soil is
loosest over the bulb; the following year when the ground is not already
softened for mousey fingers, they're not as apt to be dug up, but mice may
still get the tiniest bulblets that would otherwise be developing from
self-seeding. The people who complain their tommy crocuses don't spread
are almost certainly unknowingly being visited by mice, or the tommies
certainly would spread.

I visited a number
of websites but nobody said how deep to put the bulbs. Thanks for your
help!

Shelley


I prefer crocuses in the garden rather than in the grass, but I like to
place tommies where they seed naturally into lawn so the garden & lawn
blend together. On the other hand, some crocuses are so awfully floppy
when in flower that growing them in the lawn keeps them propped up. Select
the tallest-flowering varieties with the most-open cups, some C.
chrystanthus varieties are very short & have small round flowers ("Prinz
Claus" and "Cream Beauty" for example) & so do not show as well in grass,
but some other C. chrystanthus cultivars stand up tall & fully open. Some
C. vernus cultivars are biggest by far but also bloom last. But really I'd
go for tommies because they self-seed the best, or "Firefly" because it's
earliest.

Squills & Glory of the Snow also compelte nicely with turf. Glory of the
Snows have floppy untidy homely leaves & stems when planted in a garden, &
the flowers often flop face-down because the stems are inadequate to hold
them up, but pllanted in turf, the leaves practically vanish within the
lawn's grass, & the flowers stay face up. They are apt to bloom mid & late
March. English Squill however may wait until April to bloom & for many
that might mean having to wait way too long for the first mowing that'd
have to wait for late May.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

DigitalVinyl 21-03-2004 08:12 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 
"Shelley" wrote:

Hi there. While out walking yesterday my husband and I passed by a lawn
that was full of crocus flowers and we just loved it. I was just wondering.
Are there any downfalls to planting these little bulbs in your lawn? Do
they spread like the dickens and we'd eventually have only crocuses? It
just looked so nice and so colorful for the brown-lawn time of year so I had
to ask. Also, if we decide to plant these little bulbs next fall so that we
can have a lawn like this, how deep do you plant them? I visited a number
of websites but nobody said how deep to put the bulbs. Thanks for your
help!

Shelley


I've been wondering abot these myself. I've been thinking they can't
only spread by dividing.

We have WHAT I THINK are crocus on our block. They are growing wild.
A large 10x10 area up by a school is the biggest block, then across
the asphalt street from them is a block of them growing around bushes
at the side of a driveway. One house down is a small clump of them
under a tree and another house down is a few just buy a evergreen
bush. They aren't anywhere else. Half of them are on the sidewalk
patches that just get mowed and are clearly unintentional. They look
like crocus but they are clearly spreading by more methods than just
bulb division, since they appear to be crossing streets, going down
the street without springing up along the way.



DiGiTAL ViNYL (no email)
Zone 6b/7, Westchester Co, NY, 1 mile off L.I.Sound
2nd year gardener

simy1 21-03-2004 08:42 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 
"Shelley" wrote in message news:82h7c.53549$_w.851264@attbi_s53...
Hi there. While out walking yesterday my husband and I passed by a lawn
that was full of crocus flowers and we just loved it. I was just wondering.
Are there any downfalls to planting these little bulbs in your lawn? Do
they spread like the dickens and we'd eventually have only crocuses? It
just looked so nice and so colorful for the brown-lawn time of year so I had
to ask. Also, if we decide to plant these little bulbs next fall so that we
can have a lawn like this, how deep do you plant them? I visited a number
of websites but nobody said how deep to put the bulbs. Thanks for your
help!

Shelley


be aware that crocuses will multiply and form drifts only in part to
full sun. They will not multiply if there is shade, even bright shade,
though they will survive. Also, given that the background color (the
lawn) is brown, light purple varieties are almost invisible. Stick to
larger crocuses, deep violet (best) or yellow and white. These will
cost more. You may pay $100 for 300 crocuses, but you will need to
wait a few years for them to fill in the drifts and truly make a show.
If you have acid soil shade, like I have, you will be much better off
with scilla (which is blue), which spreads slowly but spreads, is
undestructible, and can be mowed ten days earlier. Its drifts are just
as lovely.

As the other poster pointed out, if you do have crocuses in full sun,
by the time you can finally mow (early June in michigan) the grass can
be quite tall (unacceptably tall if you have non-cooperating
neighbors). They will otherwise not suffocate the grass, which has the
lawn five months all by itself. Crocus does well in well drained soil,
and will die in waterlogged parts of the yard, but does not require
much feeding. I am unaware of whether weed and feed (or other lawn
pesticides) will kill it. The squirrels will get it, so I hear, though
at my place, with an abundance of nut and seed trees, I have never
seen a squirrel dig up a crocus bulb. You can provide some early
protection by planting bulbs just before the ground freezes in
november.

H Hornblower 21-03-2004 09:32 PM

Crocuses on lawn
 
Don't be discouraged. This is really very easy. Put some in
and see what happens. Take a picture so you'll know where to plant if
you decide to add more in fall.

Paul Below 22-03-2004 05:38 AM

Crocuses on lawn
 
On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 19:04:12 GMT, DigitalVinyl
wrote:

They look
like crocus but they are clearly spreading by more methods than just
bulb division, since they appear to be crossing streets, going down
the street without springing up along the way.


Maybe humans are giving them a helping hand in crossing the street.



Shelley 22-03-2004 05:39 AM

Crocuses on lawn
 
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. After posting this we did notice
that our lawn has maybe 6 of these flowers in the front. We'll try more
this fall and see how it turns out. I'm looking forward to it! Thanks
again. You've all been incredibly helpful.

Shelley


"H Hornblower" wrote in message
...
Don't be discouraged. This is really very easy. Put some in
and see what happens. Take a picture so you'll know where to plant if
you decide to add more in fall.




Paul Below 22-03-2004 05:55 AM

Crocuses on lawn
 
On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 19:04:12 GMT, DigitalVinyl
wrote:

They look
like crocus but they are clearly spreading by more methods than just
bulb division, since they appear to be crossing streets, going down
the street without springing up along the way.


Maybe humans are giving them a helping hand in crossing the street.



Shelley 22-03-2004 05:57 AM

Crocuses on lawn
 
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. After posting this we did notice
that our lawn has maybe 6 of these flowers in the front. We'll try more
this fall and see how it turns out. I'm looking forward to it! Thanks
again. You've all been incredibly helpful.

Shelley


"H Hornblower" wrote in message
...
Don't be discouraged. This is really very easy. Put some in
and see what happens. Take a picture so you'll know where to plant if
you decide to add more in fall.




gregpresley 22-03-2004 08:12 AM

Crocuses on lawn
 
I have had crocus in my parking strip for the past 4 years. I planted them
by shoving a shovel under the turf, pushing a handful of crocus into place,
then pushing the turf back down. (I placed a mothball with each group to try
to deter squirrels). The first year, the squirrels did their best to yank up
the crocus as soon as they began to bloom, so I ended up having to put
chicken wire over each clump - not very pretty - sort of a crocus
concentration camp. But they have since come back every year. They spread
slowly in the turf, much faster where they do not have to compete against
the roots of grass. They are in mid-bloom right now. I will mow the grass
the first week in May. Usually it's possible to see the crocus leaves
browning or tanning, and that's the clue that it's safe to mow. Other bulbs
that you can consider doing this with are chionodoxa (glory of the snow) and
scilla. I have even put in early tulips in places that I can stand to mow
later.
"Shelley" wrote in message
news:VFq7c.53260$JL2.713452@attbi_s03...
Thank you everyone for your suggestions. After posting this we did notice
that our lawn has maybe 6 of these flowers in the front. We'll try more
this fall and see how it turns out. I'm looking forward to it! Thanks
again. You've all been incredibly helpful.

Shelley


"H Hornblower" wrote in message
...
Don't be discouraged. This is really very easy. Put some in
and see what happens. Take a picture so you'll know where to plant if
you decide to add more in fall.






Michelle 23-03-2004 01:42 AM

Crocuses on lawn
 
On Sun, 21 Mar 2004 13:47:48 GMT, "Shelley"
wrote:

Hi there. While out walking yesterday my husband and I passed by a lawn
that was full of crocus flowers and we just loved it. I was just wondering.
Are there any downfalls to planting these little bulbs in your lawn? Do
they spread like the dickens and we'd eventually have only crocuses? It
just looked so nice and so colorful for the brown-lawn time of year so I had
to ask. Also, if we decide to plant these little bulbs next fall so that we
can have a lawn like this, how deep do you plant them? I visited a number
of websites but nobody said how deep to put the bulbs. Thanks for your
help!

Shelley

they will spread and make little patches of kind of short greenery
you plant them a few inches down maybe three but not too deep they
don't mind cold in fact mine came through the snow this year
they are so very lovely they can be controled just dig up the ones you
don't want with a tiny spade or a grapefruit spoon is what I use so I
don't dammage the others when I want to thin them out Try some
llborders around the out side of your flower beds the greenery looks
a bit like grass when the blosems are gone
They come in different sizes too so be sure you have the ones you want
michelle


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