Crocus and companion plants in the garden February 2010

[TheOnionMan]

Mc Mark, do you have the Garda-Allium in your marvellous collection?

Regarding Allium carinatum ssp. pulchellum, yes, I have the typical rosy-purple form, the white form, and I uploaded a nice pale lilac one, great for color in July and August.  By the way, did you notice what looks like lint hanging from your Garda allium (thus my attempt at a joke)

[Armin]

Mark,
thank you for explaining your way of planting crocus. You give them a good drainage that is fundamental then no problem with moist and mulch layer. I have a heavy loamy soil in my garden which keeps lot of moist.

Thomas,
I'm pleased to see pictures from your garden again. Good idea to bridge the snowy time.
Our time of "outside" croconut growers is still to come! 

[TheOnionMan]

Here's some "eye candy" of the horticultural type.  At Home Depot, a large US chain of "big box" building supply stores, I bought a jumbo bag of Crocus tommasinianus in fall 2003, I believe it was $6 US dollars for 100-count bag!  

I planted them out fairly thickly.  First photograph is in spring 2004, second photo is spring 2005, photos 3-5 are taken in 2007.  Note the apparent color difference photographed in sun versus on a cloudy day.  I'd say I got my money's worth.  The grouping flowered just as well in 2008 and 2009, but I didn't photograph them again.

[Thomas Huber]

By the way, did you notice what looks like lint hanging from your Garda allium (thus my attempt at a joke)

No, Mark, I havn't noticed this lint before and even after you put my attention on it I can't tell you what it is.
So let the joke out...  
Your tommies look great - you might be interested, that most of the crocus on my lawn were also such bargains
from the local garden-centers. They look like tommasinianus 'Barr's Purple' - do they set seed, mine do.

Here two more photos from my chaos bed. One from June, when the shrubs flowered nicely. The second was made for
another reason, not due to showing the leaves, but it shows how well they cover my plot from nosy views.

[Thomas Huber]

This is my second rockgarden. Before I started it was an ugly slope with lots of mixed plantings in loamy-sandy soil.
After I've mixed up lots of sand and placed the rocks to form the terraces in 2007, the planting baskets with the
Crocus and Galanthus were plunged.
I also planted some Campanulas from the neighbours garden and Sempervivums, but last autumn I added many
cushion plants. Will post more photos this summer to show how it thrives.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great stuff Thomas !  Really nice ! 
We definitely missed these postings last spring !!

I'm intrigued by the rows of pots you have in what seems to be a small trench at the base of the raised bed ?? 
Never seen that before - is this where the "rarer" bulbs are and maybe get a cover of some kind in summer ??  Or is there another reason ??

[Thomas Huber]

Last one for today is my first rock garden, built in 2005, started with the same situation like the second.
For a better look I have added river pebbles as top dressing. Some small plants have already increased well.
And as an extra for Mark my favourite Allium.

[Thomas Huber]

Thanks Luc. These rows of pots are my 'Kindergarden' - small corms or species from which
I only have 1 or two corms, nothing more (photo). The rarer bulbs don't have a special place,
they are everywhere.

[Sinchets]

  Thomas
A repeat posting of C.pestalozzae caeruleus from March last year. To show how plants bounce back from snow cover. The group started to flower just before our last snow fall of that winter. The first picture shows the flattened flowers a short time after the snow had melted. The next pics were taken over the course of the afternoon. I brought 2 bulbs with me to Bulgaria in September 2006 and they were planted in their current position in the winter of 2007 when voles invaded our temporary bulb beds - the last picture I think shows they have been happy enough.

[Gerdk]

Thomas,
Nice combinations of plants and stones - and  not too much Crocus species! 
Love your plantings!

Gerd

[Armin]

My real passion for crocus and other bulbous plants started in autuum 2005 planting 1st corms in my soccer lawn (now it is slowly converting to a meadow). After I had visited Thomas rock garden I changed to use baskets to separate the species in the raised beds,too. In my meadow I generaly don't use baskets.

Picture one shows spring 2009.
Next picture shows part of raised bed in 2009. Most of them I moved to the meadow to narrow the gaps.
Last picture shows a shining example. One day in the future I hope to get as many flowers ).
It is made in "Botanischer Garten Wuppertal". Sofar as I know those crocus plantings were initiated by Erich Pasche.
Special thanks to Gerd who introduced me this beautiful place.

Simon, a wonderful nice clump of C. pestalozzae

[Sinchets]

Gerd, I like to think of the non-bulbous plants as Crocus support systems- although someone siting very near me would say they are life support systems for terrestrial orchids!
Armin, the C.pestalozzae are coming up again just now- even more noses this year. The Wuppertal meadows are something else!

[TheOnionMan]

Simon - nice looking C. pestallozzae, I've taken note that I must some day try that species.

Armin - you too have lawn given over to bulbs!  Looks great!!  I have too much boring lawn, and I'm inspired by your photos and Thomas's bulb lawns, to start doing something about it here.

Thomas - I always enjoy looking at photos such as yours, overall shots and planting vignettes, to see what sorts of plant people are growing.  It's also interesting to see the transformation of garden beds through the seasons, and yes your shrub plantings make an attractive hedge-row don't they, and afford some privacy!  I spy an Eremurus stenophyllus in one view; I used to have a large clump, but lost it to a record-breaking wet spring 5 years ago.  I'm also envious of your lush clumps of Ipheion uniflorum (is it Wisley Blue?), they are only marginally hardy here, and die a slow death over 2 or 3 winters.

Thansk for throwing in an Allium photo for my benefit, A. cristophii is certainly one of the most ornamental ones.  But I have to ask you Thomas, and Armin too, what are the "ornamental balls" displayed in the garden.  With that Allium photo, there's a bit of a trompe d'oeil with the ornamental ball in the distance looking like it is balancing on top of the Allium head.

[Thomas Huber]

Armin, your lawn is on the way to make a good companion to mine, really great.
But please don't forget to built some steps for a walk around.
Your seedlings will soon cover the whole area and you will not know where to walk with your feet.

Simon, your clump of the blue pestalozzae obviously feels good in your garden.
Mine have also increased, but not in that quantity. Please don't battle with Chris - grow crocus and
Orchids together in a mixed bed. Will be interesting to see the result!!

Mark, my Eremurus was replanted from the rockgarden in 2007 because I thought it is too large for
the area. In the new area it didn't flower since that time, so I replanted it again in my latest rockgarden,
built 2008/9.
The Ipheions are growing like a week in my rockgarden. In 2008 I devided another large clump (photo)
and gave hundreds of bulbs to my mother. Perhaps you should try to add some pumice to your soil.
Mine didn't flower well in the first years, but have increased dramaticly since I grow them in a pumice-sand-soil mix.

The 'balls' were placed mainly by my wife, but the one behind Allium christiphii was made by my kids.
We have plastic balls, some glass balls and also clay balls. Don't you know them in the US? I have also seen
them on the gardenshow years ago (photo 2)

[Thomas Huber]

Nice combinations of plants and stones - and  not too much Crocus species! 

And especially for Gerd, who obviously misses crocus photos, some overview photos from
my 2005 rockgarden in autumn. I think I already posted them in the past but they fit
very good with the thread-theme of growing crocus outside, so I will hopefully be forgiven: