Having Enough

 

 

crocus (macro)

 

What does it mean to "have enough"?  I used to buy a few of something. A few bulbs, a handful of annuals, a couple perennials. Why? Mostly because we were broke, just starting a family, the usual reasons for a young couple. But our scarcity mindset came from not having a clue. What does one crocus look like? What does twenty look like in that same space? Bit by bit, I came to realize what thrived in our little garden. 

Now I see crocuses in a completely different light. I dont want one. I want hundreds. I want the ground to be blanketed in rich yellows and creams, whites punctuated with saturated royal purples. And I want to feel that color fill the air. Somehow the radiant color makes the mornings warmer. The buzzing of bees is slow and unpracticed after winter dormancy. 

 

It's easy to want winter to hurry up so that spring can begin. Spring seldom lasts very long. There's always that pressure to dive straight into summer. Hurry, hurry, we have to plant everything immediately.

Crocuses take some of that pressure off. 

They fill that space between mud season and lawn mowing season. They fail as a cut flower. They have an incredibly short bloom season.... but that color! 

Twenty years ago, all I wanted was as many crocus as I could afford. A hundred at a time... and poof, they were all in the ground. I started looking into species crocus a few years ago, maturity making me more critical of what sort of bulbs we were planting. Also probably a better understanding of what will thrive in this mucky clay of ours. 

That end, I planted C. tommasinianus 'Hummingbird' last fall. I also planted some 'Ruby Giant'. All in the hope that they might be just a touch more hardy. We'll see. I also planted them into one of the newer beds that were made two years ago. It will be interesting to see how they come up (timing and behavior) compared to the older crocuses.

 

crocus (macro)

Each autumn I fall back on Van Engelen as my go-to bulb supplier. Other sources have either lousy reputations or high prices. If you've come across reliable sources that rock your garden, let me know in the comments. I'm also thinking that it might be interesting to look into bulb trading. 

Which brings me back to "having enough". I think bulbs that multiply are such a gift. I try to make sure to have an ample supply of crocus and iris reticulata when it comes time to move plants in the fall. I toss a few into each of my planting holes as I move my perennials. For one thing, it helps me remember that I planted something there. Early spring is an easy time to be unsure: is it a weed or something precious that I can't remember the name of? I think the old saying that if it comes out of the ground easily, it must be something expensive and rare. Bulbs help mark those spots. Best of all, when I go to divide those perennials, there are always a few bulbs that roll out of the loose dirt. Crocus are fairly easy to identify. Same with the iris reticulata. And when spring rolls around again, there will be more color spread throughout the garden. I just can't have enough of that color!