The Life Cycle of Crocus

carlowplayer

Have planted about 60 crocus plants as well as some hyacinths, alliums in my garden.I want to know can they breed and produce more plants once pollinated by bees will they breed newer plants in my garden or will they die and then dissapear.

Mothman

The most important part of Crocuses life is the few months after flowering. They flower early. When flowering is done the leaves replenish the bulbs. By about early June this is done and the leaves die back.
If for some reason the leaves cannot do their work either by them being cut or from competition from thick grass etc, they will die out. This applies to other bulbs such as snowdrops, Daffodils etc.

Some crocuses will naturalise and spread by seed and also new bulbs grow from other older bulbs.

Northumbria

Not all cultivated plants set seed. Even if they do, sometimes they can be a pain in the arse to grow from them.
Plants that have been hybridised a lot often become sterile or near sterile. Many cultivated daffodils are the native variety crossed with various European ones. The pure native stock Narcissus pseudonarcissus ssp pseudonarcissus does set seed, but they don't look at refined as cultivated versions (although they do look similar). But bear in mind that daffodils from seed can take 5 years or more to grow and flower. I'm not sure what Crocuses are like in that respect.

Many plants will grow the leafy parts one year and flower the next year and every year after that. Bulbs are a food storage organ for the plants but also act as a secondary means of dispersal (although bulbs are essentially clones of the original plant - only in rare cases do they mutate).

most crocuses will probably set seed, bluebells and snowdrops do as well. Pusckinia and muscari are also good at naturalising too.

Gangu

This is a good thread so thought I'd ask a follow on question. Is you have planted crocuses in outdoor pots and window boxes can one 'harvest' them for next year in some way?

tmq

Same question as Gangu here... have a few hyacinth and crocus in pots, not sure if i can save them for next year and use the pots for something else i the meantime.

Gangu

tmq wrote: »

Same question as Gangu here... have a few hyacinth and crocus in pots, not sure if i can save them for next year and use the pots for something else i the meantime.

No one seems to know.

Marhay70

Crocuses will multiply by producing small corms or baby bulbs.
If you want to save crocus or hyacinth for planting again in autumn you need to wait until all the leaves have died back then dig up the bulbs, dry them in a shady place, clean them off and store them cool and dark. By the time you've done all this you may decide it's not worth the effort, particularly for crocus. Forced hyacinths, sold in pots to bloom early are often not dependable in later years.

Roselm

Gangu wrote: »

This is a good thread so thought I'd ask a follow on question. Is you have planted crocuses in outdoor pots and window boxes can one 'harvest' them for next year in some way?

You can just leave them under the soil and they'll come up again next year. In the mean time just plant whatever you want around the bulbs for summer colour ...

looksee

Or you can plant them in a (plastic) pot and put the pot into a decorative pot. When they have flowered you can fill the pot with compost and plant annuals, and drop the crocuses back in the following year.