Northern Shade Gardening

Crocus chrysanthus snow crocus with yellow and light blue flowers

Crocus chrysanthus (snow crocus) are one of the first bulbs to flower in spring, with delicate little petals in cheery colours. The only bulbs in my garden that flowered earlier this year were the Galanthus (snowdrops). I look forward to the sight of all of these miniature flowers appearing as the snow melts. Crocus vernus (large Dutch crocus) flowers are double the size of the snow crocus. However, even though each snow crocus flower is small, as a large drift they make a wonderful patchwork of colour against the brown of  last fall’s leaves.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Gipsy Girl' sunny yellow flowers with maroon stripes

Crocus chrysanthus ‘Gipsy Girl’ has medium yellow petals, and on the outside there are zippy maroon coloured stripes that show up well when the petals are closed. In the brightest light of day, the petals open wide to show a glowing yellow, and the contrasting stripes are not very visible. Instead, there are  golden anthers in each cup.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Gipsy Girl' with closed petals in gold and maroon

In early morning,  evening, or on a cloudy day, the petals fold upright, so the stripes on the outside make them a little more flamboyant. In the picture above you can see how the coloured lines curve up to the petal tips.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Gipsy Girl' in front with 'Blue Pearl' behind

Here you can see a group of yellow ‘Gipsy Girl’ snow crocus  in the front, with the pale blue colour of ‘Blue Pearl’ behind.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Gipsy Girl' with Crocus chrysanthus'Blue Pearl'

Above you can see the petals of  ‘Gipsy Girl’ opening as the sun hits them. Last year, the ‘Gipsy Girl’ and the similar looking ‘Fuscotinctus’ crocus were about the same size, but this year the  ‘Gipsy Girl’ flowers are almost twice as big. If I plant any more next fall, I would go with ‘Gipsy Girl’ instead of Fuscotinctus’.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Fuscotinctus' yellow flowers

Crocus chrysanthus ‘Fuscotinctus’ is another snow crocus with a bright yellow colour embellished with contrasting maroon stripes on the outside of the petals. The petals are a little darker than ‘Gipsy Girl’, so if you want a more golden coloured snow crocus these are a good choice.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' flowers with butter yellow petals

Crocus chrysanthus ‘Cream Beauty’ has delicate shadings of soft, butter yellow and cream. These look great with other darker yellow flowers, or with light colours like ‘Blue Pearl’.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' flowers in dappled light

Here the Crocus chrysanthus ‘Cream Beauty’ have a bit of dappled light, under the bare branches of a maple tree. The crocus would not be as decorative in the shade, with their petals always folded, but in early spring, they do well before the leaves come out on the trees.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Blue Pearl' flowers

Crocus chrysanthus ‘Blue Pearl’ is a real chameleon of a crocus. In bright light it looks all white, with no hint of its name. However, when the sun is low, or with a few shadows, it can appear very blue. The outside of the petals are more blue, so the colour is more pronounced when they start to fold in dimmer light.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Snow Bunting' snow crocus in white

My Crocus chrysanthus ‘Snow Bunting’ flowered first this year, perhaps because the snow melted a little quicker in this area of the garden. Their white petals are beautiful in the bright sun, and they show up perfectly against the dark earth. Inside at the base, the bottom of the petals have a gold coloured ring to match the anthers.

Crocus chrysanthus snow crocus in yellow and light blue

These crocus are planted in between hardy geraniums, which are still underground. I planted these in holes dug around the perennials,  around 15 to 20 per hole. There are around 200 Crocus chrysanthus, and 200 Crocus vernus in this section.  As the crocus fade away through spring, the geraniums start emerging, and cover the fading bulb foliage. In the centre is a lilac, with leaf buds that are just starting to swell. The layering of a small lilac shrub above,  hardy geranium ‘Rozanne’ perennials under, and snow crocus and Crocus vernus (large Dutch crocus) bulbs between has been very successful, and one that I can recommend. Here are some more Crocus chrysanthus photos and information from last year.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' snow crocus with Crocus vernus behind

I’m very pleased with how the cheery little snow crocus are flourishing. They have come back with more and larger flowers this year, despite a harsh winter. Since some bulbs tend to fade away year after year, it is great to see the snow crocus getting better as they settle in. They make a wonderful start to the gardening year.

The exquisite flowers of Galanthus elwesii (snowdrops) and Crocus chrysanthus (snow crocus) bring tremendous joy, all out of proportion to their diminutive petal size. These small spring bulbs are the most anticipated in my garden. Both live up to their name, and start flowering right at the edge of the receding snow line. They don’t mind the freezing spring nights, and take advantage of the warm daylight filtering through the bare tree branches.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Snow Bunting' (snow crocus) collage

These Crocus chrysanthus ‘Snow Bunting’ started flowering at the edge of the snow, just a day after it melted from above them. You can see the rest of the snow behind them, which still covers much of the garden. The little snow crocus don’t bother waiting for promises of warmer days. They get right to work, unrolling their pure white petals to expose the golden anthers inside. Any awakening pollinators should be happy to find the crocus flowers.

I planted the ‘Snow Bunting’ two falls ago, and they have twice as many flowers on them as last year. It’s good to know that they appreciate the site and are flourishing. This area gets shadier in the summer, but gets a medium amount of light in early spring, when the crocus can use it.

I have many other snow crocus just a little ways over, but they are still covered in deeper snow. If this warm weather continues, they might be flowering by the end of the week. We had deep cover this winter, so where snow patches have melted closer to the warmth of the house, the green of Crocus vernus (large Dutch crocus) has started to appear. Although they usually flower after the little snow crocus, they might be first this year, other than ‘Snow Bunting’. If the C. vernus flower early, and the C. chrysanthus flower late, they might both flower together this spring, which should make for a great display.

Galanthus elwesii first snowdrops

The Galanthus elwesii are also early risers. This is a ladybug’s view of the flowers, where you can see the details of green markings on the inner petals. The snowdrops are such graceful looking flowers, for having such a tough disposition. Mine don’t seem to spread much, and are still a fairly small patch.

The rest of the snowdrop bulbs are just popping their tips above the leaves. I leave the fallen leaves on the garden as a protective mulch, and have just started removing it, where it’s not still frozen to the ground. There are some other early spring bulbs nearby showing a few green tips through the leaves. The Chionodoxa (glory of the snow) and Scilla (squills) should be up soon, and will start flowering quickly, too.

earliest spring bulb flowers

Above is a collage of some early spring sightings this weekend. On the upper left is a picture of a fat, pink Helleborus bud. The Helleborus ‘Ivory Prince’ perennials are full of these plump buds, which look as attractive as flowers. In another week or so, they should be opening as well. On the upper right are the leaves of Crocus vernus. There are dozens and dozens of them looking like green spears thrusting out of the old, crystallized snow and ice.

These first bulbs are flowering about 3 weeks later than last year. After a long off-season, it’s so heartening to finally see the first blooms. Now that the ground can finally feel the warmth of the sun, the rest of the bulbs should be coaxed out soon, and liven up the garden. I love the earliest spring bulbs that satisfy your thirst for blooms after the long flower drought, so pretty, so dainty,  and so appreciated.

Crocus vernus (large Dutch crocus) provide lots of pretty blooms early in spring, just when you are starved for new flowers after the long winter. They have large, showy blooms in bright colours, and flower right after the early Crocus chrysanthus (snow crocus). I’ve included some pictures of the crocus bulbs I just planted in October, and a few photos of the flowers from last spring.

There is a patch of both Crocus vernus and Crocus chrysanthus (snow crocus) just across the path here. You can follow those links to see what they looked like in bloom. They were such a bright cheery sight in earliest spring, that I wanted to spread more colour over to this section of the garden. The Paeonia (peony), Phlox and Campanula (bellflower) perennials in this bed won’t be up until later in spring, so these crocus bulbs will start the colour parade. Then the later rising perennial foliage will hide the decaying bulb leaves.

Crocus vernus bulbs about to be planted

I enjoyed the purple and gold colour scheme so much last spring, that I wanted to recreate it here. This is a smaller space to plant in,  because I can’t plant between the large bearded iris rhizomes or evergreen Dianthus. I debated about either going with the extra early snow crocus for first flowers, or the larger Dutch crocus, and ended up deciding on the large Crocus vernus. Originally, I was going to try out some new types, but I ended up planting the same Crocus corms that I planted last Fall, since I liked the large flowers and bright colours so much.

Crocus vernus 'Remembrance' large dutch crocus in spring

Crocus vernus ‘Remembrance’ have large purple flowers, very bold and showy. In the picture of the packages at the top, their position is mostly hidden behind the Phlox plants. The photo directly above is from last spring, showing how cheery the purple petals are. There are 30 of these in the new section, but I wish I had put more of them at the back to balance the striped ones. If I can find more ‘Remembrance’, I’m going to extend the group.

Crocus vernus 'Pickwick' large Dutch crocus bulbs

Crocus vernus ‘Pickwick’ have purple and white stripes. These ones coordinate beautifully with ‘Remembrance’, as do the similarly coloured ‘Striped Beauty’. Both of these types of striped crocus are planted in front of the solid ‘Remembrance’. When planting in between perennials, I find it easiest to dig a hole for a group of 10 to 20, arrange the crocus bulbs randomly, settle them down in the loose soil at the bottom, and then cover them back up. There are 45 ‘Pickwick’ on one side and 30 ‘Striped Beauty’ planted here.

Crocus vernus 'Silver Coral' white with purple base

The Crocus vernus ‘Silver Coral’ bulbs are in between the two stripy versions. ‘Silver Coral’ is white with a purple base, so it is perfect for in the centre of the solid and striped purple ones. The shot above shows them from last April. At the back right of the picture, you can see how their base colour matches the Crocus vernus ‘Remembrance’. There are 30 ‘Silver Coral’ in the middle, to add a little rest from all of the purple.

Crocus 'Yellow Mammoth' bulbs being planted

In front of all of the the others are 40 Crocus ‘Yellow Mammoth’. These vivid crocus are a golden yellow, with a long bloom time. Their colour looks fabulous with the purples, a bright, cheery spring combination. The yellow really pops in front of the darker colours.

Crocus 'Yellow Mammoth' bulbs Dutch crocus packages

I also planted another 40 of the ‘Yellow Mammoth’ next to a separate group of blue Iris reticulata ‘Cantab’. Last year the Iris were in a group by themselves, underneath a Philadelphus (mockorange orange shrub). I think the ‘Yellow Mammoth’, which bloom at the same time, will make another pretty spring pairing. On impulse, I added another 30 ‘Striped Beauty’ next to the Iris and ‘Yellow Mammoth’ group. Now there will be purple and white striped crocus, then golden yellow crocus in the middle, and blue with gold-flecked iris on the other side. I’m eager to see how the three look together when they bloom.

It was a lot of fun planting crocus bulbs over the last few weekends, since the weather has been very warm for Edmonton, and the sun was shining. It feels good to have the warm sun on your skin, as you dig in the earth, and the Fall leaves gently waft down around you, then into the planting holes. It is one of my favourite parts of gardening. I always picture what the new bulbs will look like in spring as I plant, so I made a montage below to show how it looked in my mind.

Crocus vernus composite photo

The composite photo shows how the colours of the four crocus look  together in the relative positions in which they’ve been planted, purple behind, white with a hint of purple in the middle, purple and white stripes on each side, and golden crocus in front. Now I can’t wait until next April, for the bulb procession to start. I’m a big fan of the small early bulbs to start the garden season extra early with a burst of colour. They are the perfect antidote to the blandness of an Edmonton April. All around will be the monotonous beige of late winter, but the bright crocus will sing that the garden season has really begun.