These sad looking plants are actually a successful experiment. For the past few years I have been growing autumn crocuses in pots. But they have been quite miserable and floppy and not pretty, and I have been trying to work out what they need.
First, a bit of terminology. While officially the term “autumn crocus” is only correctly applied to Colchicum species, in practical terms it is also what people call the autumn flowering Crocus species – Crocus sativus (aka saffron), and Crocus speciosus. Also, Colchium isn’t actually a kind of Crocus, they’re more closely related to lilies. Got it? Classic gardening situation. Anyway…
I grow a lot of bulbs in pots. I grow them in what I call my plant nursery area, which is south facing and sheltered. Once they flower, I move them to the front of the house so they to be admired by the parcel delivery people that are the most common group to travel our long driveway. Unlike the nursery, this area is north-east facing and windy. This works well for snowdrops, daffodils, and tulips, but when I tried it with the autumn crocuses in September to November, they just flopped over and stayed closed up.
So this year I left them in my nursery area, to see if they need a more sheltered and sunny environment. I had also intended to grow some grass or rushes in the pots so they could protect the flowers from the wind. That ended up not happening, so instead I just didn’t weed the pots like I usually would, and allowed the weeds to act as wind protection. Not as aesthetically pleasing, but it had the same effect. And this worked! This year the autumn crocuses looked a lot happier.
And because they are doing better, I have been able to notice a pattern. Crocus and Colchium are nyctinastic – the flowers close at night and open during the day. Now that my Crocus and Colchium are not being blown over by the wind and are in a sunny spot, I have been able to see that they are extremely sensitive to cloud cover. On days where there isn’t a patch of blue in the sky, the flowers remain closed. That was the situation in this photo.
I can’t do anything about the clouds, and with climate change Ireland will be getting even more cloudy, but now I know how to maximise my chances of getting a nice autumn crocus display – plant them among other greenery, and keep them in a sunny and sheltered area.
Outdoor flowers in October are a rare thing, so I don’t mind fussing a bit in order to enjoy them.
