Growing Crocus

[Garden Manager]

I love these spring flowers, but they never seem to last for some reason, so i am asking what is the best way/place to grow them?

In a border, naturalised in a lawn or in pots? It is in borders that I have the most difficulty.

Advice please. :)

[Garden Manager]

[NattyEm]

Mine are in pots mostly but I have a few in the front garden in a bed too.  They seem to last until the wind knocks their heads off :(

The ones in pots always last longer and do much better.  Then again I never lift the ones out the front maybe thats why? Maybe I should lift them and replant.

Dunno if its snowing that side of the ridgeway btw....its trying here :)

[Garden Manager]

Emma

My mum has some in what i call a 'layered' pot of spring bulbs (crocus narcissi and tulip). Nice white ones, now in their third year and still looking good, though the pot itself needs a sort out, since the narcissa and crocus decided to flower at the same time which isnt the idea!

I suppose in pots they do need replanting and a change of compost every few years, though i dont think they need this doing in a border (and impractical in a lawn!)

I love seeing them natualised in grass and wouldnt mind trying them this way if i could guarantee it would work and the grass wont  choke them out.

I have been put off in the past growing bulbs in grass becuase of the mess daffodils make after flowering, though I suppose crocus wouldnt make much of a mess of the lawn(its just timing the cutting of the grass that bothers me).

So its trying to sno w in weymouth eh? No snow this side of the ridgeway, though the skies are getting darker to the south and east.  :o

[Tulipa]

I love crocuses but have a big problem with squirrels eating them from my pots.  They pull up the bulbs and take one bite and throw them on the ground.  If they ate the whole thing it wouldn't be so bad but just a nibble and throw them it is not fair!  I try and put only crocus in a pot so I can keep an upturned sieve on it as long as possible.

I find crocus the easiest bulb to naturalise as we choose early flowering varieties so they are over quicker and we can cut the grass around them earlier than if we had daffodils, also the leaves are not so noticeable in the grass.  We leave them six weeks after the last flower and they still look good 10 years on.

[Mrs Ava]

I have trouble with crocus corms because my garden is very wet and cold, even though the air temp can be high.  Things in pots do much better and I don't have to worry too much about tender things being killed in the winter.  I find corms rot but bulbs survive and I put this down to the shape as corms tend to be more squat so I feel the water sits on top of them.  I adore seeing bulbs naturalised and another option rather than crocus or daffs are cyclamen.  There is a chap around the corner from us, and he has a silver birch in his front garden and beneath is at the moment is a carpet of pinks and purples, all cyclamen and it looks wonderful!  Have no idea what he does about the foliage, but I guess the lawn under the tree is slower growing. 
I also have a layered pot and currently have snowdrops and crocus just opened, daffs and grape hyacinths to come.  ;D

[NattyEm]

My pots (apart from the bbq as its not deep enough) are layerd too, crocus at the moment and those little narcissi (I can't spell) just opening, tulips to come.