Appearing like white floral votives with a central golden flame, the snowbunting crocus, Crocus chrysanthus ‘Snowbunting,’ lights up the lawn and perennial beds in mid-winter when everyone welcomes a spring tonic.
Snowbunting’s Roots
In 1914 E.A. Bowles, British naturalist, plant breeder, botanical artist, and gardener, introduced this diminutive crocus cultivar. Snowbunting’s ancestry includes Crocus chrysanthus and Crocus biflorus. Bowles bred many cultivars of crocus at his estate, Myddelton House in Enfield, England north of London, often naming them after birds.
Focus on Crocus
Snowbuntings are among the smallest crocus species growing only 3 inches high. One of the best ways to view a crocus is with a powerful hand lens or magnifying glass. Magnification puts you in Thumbelina’s world.
From each corm one to four flowers arise on delicate floral tubes. Each flower bud is goblet-shaped with five to seven vertical purple pin-striped featherings on exterior petals. Buds open in bright sunshine revealing an orange three-pronged flared-tip pistil awaiting pollen. Three yellow stamens which produce and release pollen surround the pistil. The slender green tufted, grasslike leaves resemble whiskers.
While inspecting the flower closely, a sweet fragrance can be detected.
Cultivation of Snowbunting
The hardy herbaceous perennial crocus is one of the easiest plants to grow. Crocuses grow from corms, a bulb-like storage organ consisting of stem tissue. Corms are planted 2 inches deep in autumn in a sunny to partial shady location with good drainage. Crocuses adapt to most soil types. E.A.Bowles achieved success in his garden’s sandy soil.
Plant with a trowel, bulb planter or, if the ground is soft, gently push the corm into the ground with fingers. Space corms 3-4 inches apart since they will multiply. However, they do not become invasive.
Place bulb fertilizer or bonemeal according to label directions within the hole of each bulb before inserting bulbs. Bulb fertilizer is high in phosphorus and low in nitrogen.
Which end is up when planting corms? The top is usually pointed and the bottom is flatter with the remains of last year’s dry roots.
Landscape Uses for Snowbunting
Snow crocuses are used in many ways in the garden in hardiness zones 3-8. They are choice plants for rock gardens and alpine troughs. When placed in mixed borders, they are often combined with anemones, daffodils, forsythia, and quince. Snowbuntings light the way along a woodland garden path.
Crocuses naturalize extremely well in turfgrass or flowerbeds. For a naturalized look toss large numbers of corms across the ground and plant.
Scott Kuntz of Old House Gardens, an heirloom flower bulb source, notes that there are always places to tuck crocuses in any garden.
Diseases and Pests of Snowbunting
Crocuses are carefree plants. Diseases rarely afflict them. Rabbits, squirrels, voles and mice enjoy eating the corms. These are the most common pests except for an occasional digging dog.
Coaxing Corms and Crocus Cake
Crocuses are child-friendly plants. Corms fit easily into a child’s hand and they are easy to grow indoors or outside. Recall the surprise and delight Dickon and Mary had with crocus in The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Heinemann, 1911).
Two fall activities introduce crocuses to children: coaxing corms and crocus cake.
Coaxing corms takes advantage of the plant’s natural processes to force corms to fast forward to spring in the middle of winter. Start by giving corms a winter dormancy period of cold storage in flower pots filled with soil. Place pots in a dark cool cellar, garage, attic or cold frame with a temperature of 35º-45ºF for a period of 8-10 weeks.
Awaken the bulbs by gradually introducing light. As shoots emerge put the pots in a sunny location with daytime temperatures of 70º-75ºF. As buds start to show, move plants to indirect light so flowers last longer.
To make a crocus cake you will need a window box planter, potting soil, bulb fertilizer, and crocus corms. Children fill the window box half full of soil. Sprinkle in the bulb fertilizer seasoning. Set bulbs onto the soil with tops facing the sky. Fill the planter with a second layer of soil. Leave the planter in a sunny spot throughout the winter. After a season of baking, the corm cake will be the first to bloom in spring.
Children peek at the cake all winter for signs of spring readiness.
The snow crocus, Snowbunting, is welcome in gardens for many exemplary attributes but especially as being an early breath of spring.
Arlene Marturano - Arlene Marturano, an educator, consultant, master gardener, and writer advocates gardens as a context and gardening as a tool for ...
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