Beat the late winter blues

Probably you’re not thinking about winter. Why would you? Winter will be here soon enough, you reason. You’re almost certainly not dwelling on how exceedingly fed up you’ll be 5 months from now. If you can bear it, cast your thoughts forward. You know you are going to need cheering up, and a more than a little encouragement.

The end of March, beginning of April, is a filthy time in our city. The receding snow exposes all manner of nameless, soggy litter. Mucky browns and salt-encrusted grays are the uninspiring colours of the season. It is with your end-of-winter emotional well-being in mind that I’m stepping up with a little reminder that now is the time to plant crocuses.

The crocus is a cornerstone of the garden. No-one who gardens in our climate should ever dream of entering the spring without the humble crocus. When you venture forth in your rubber boots to inspect the post-winter situation, and you behold the sunlit pool of gold that is a patch of crocuses, you will gasp, and having forgotten it was my suggestion, will slap yourself heartily on the back in recognition of your extreme brilliance and foresight. The glowing beauty of the delicate crocus, capturing as it does the absolute essence of spring and eternal renewal, will bathe your winter-weary eyes, and fill your heart with joy.

Not convinced? Think I’m exaggerating? Ask anyone who has them to describe the crocuses’ amazingly restorative effect. Ask the elderly lady who passed my garden on her walk and then rang my doorbell to thank me for planting them. Ask the insects that fly ecstatically from one gleaming chalice to another. Ask Zeus and Hura, who were said to love one another so passionately that the land where they lived burst forth in crocuses.

Crocuses have been grown since 1500BC when the saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, was revered by the Minoans. This particular crocus, which blooms in the autumn, has been cultivated for at least three thousand years as a dye and for its culinary and medicinal properties. Saffron is still known as the most expensive spice because 4,000 crocus stigma, hand picked, are required to produce one ounce of powder. Although some 80 crocus species exist, the whole clan is named after that important family member.

Many spring blooming varieties are available for planting now, and I recommend experimenting to see which you like, and which do well in your garden. The famous garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence said that if she could only have one crocus it would be the 1914 introduction Crocus crysanthus ‘Snow Bunting’, a cream colored flower with a gold center and bright orange stamens. An additional plus is its musky fragrance.

I like the Dutch hybrids just as much as the more delicate species crocuses. Yellow Mammoth, for example, is reliable year after year. Most crocuses prefer a well-drained gritty soil in a warm sunny spot. Plant the corms in reasonably large groups for the best effect.

While you’re on your hands and knees, you may as well plant some snowdrops (Galanthis) and a small clump of the dwarf iris Iris reticulata, both choice additions to the early spring garden. And while you’re out there, you may as well clean up a bit. After all, these beauties deserve a tidy setting in which to shine.