Description
Crocus kotschyanus is a familiar, garden-centre type of Crocus and many hundreds of thousands of the massively impressive, Dutch-raised corms must be sold each year. That form is genetically damaged however and doesn’t ever flower, though others, such as “Reliance” do so very well and it is worth seeking out.
Another which does well here is for form leucopharynx which reliably makes lovely, white-throated flowers from August onwards each year. The pale violet flowers are beautifully striped with deeper violet around white anthers and a white style. It totally lacks the golden-yellow throat spots of the typical plant. In the right site this increases very well by splitting and by the production of small offsets. It seeds well, though the seedlings largely yield the typical golden-throated form. A good garden Crocus and one of the earliest of the easy garden species. Increasingly this form seems to be less and less available.
