The most delightful way to plant crocuses—scatter them in the lawn. 
bulbs are sufficiently rounded to enable them 
to stand transportation fairly well, whereas 
the flat-bulbed anemones, e. g., coronaria and 
Apennina are sadly weakened by a long 
period above ground. 
The latest of the March heralds are the cro- 
cuses, but they have the largest flowers, and 
the gayest colors. In many a neighborhood 
there is a good deal of friendly rivalry as to 
who shall have the first crocus, and with the 
ordinary varieties it is simply a question of 
cultural skill. But there are certain species 
of crocus that can be counted on with a fair 
degree of certainty for February bloom, and 
some of these will even open in January, if 
the season be favorable. 
Probably the earliest crocus you can rely 
upon is the imperial crocus (C. Imperati), a 
lilac and buff flower that ought to bloom with 
the first snowdrops. ‘The earliest yellow 
seems to be Cloth of Gold, a variety of C. 
Susianus. ‘The earliest lilac markings are 
said to come in the white flowers of the 
Scotch crocus (C. biflorus) and the earliest 
purple is C. Siebert. If Crocus Sieberi costs 
more than you can afford, perhaps Emperor, 
a purple variety of C. vernus will be early 
enough to beat your neighbors. I hope that 
someone will try all the earliest crocuses, and 
write a “‘ Little Monograph” of them for THE 
GARDEN MAGAZINE. 
Do not be discouraged if you fail to find 
these species in the best American catalogues. 
Our dealers often keep more kinds than they 
list, and even if they do not have them, there 
is time for them to get them for you, if you 
write before October rst. You must expect 
to pay more for earliness, but the earliest 
kinds are said to have shorter flower-tubes 
than the common crocuses, and therefore are 
less liable to be damaged by inclement 
weather. 
Every year a certain well-beloved bulb 
catalogue used to stir my curiosity with 
this laconic entry: ‘“Bulbocodium vernwm. 
Blooms a week before the crocus.” One 
year I bought it and beat my neighbors. For 
practical purposes it is an early pink crocus, 
though botanically it belongs to the lily 
family, while the crocus is of the iris family, 
the chief distinction being that the ovary is 
Try the rare crocuses mentioned on this page and 
beat your neighbors by three weeks! 
134 
nm 
y 
They are not as permanent as in the garden, but mixed bulbs costlonly forty cents a hundred 
generally below the calyx in the lily family, 
and free from the calyx in the iris family. I 
have never cared to grow the Bulbocodium 
again, partly because it is rather expensive 
in quantity, but chiefly because the rare 
species of crocus above mentioned ought to 
prove much earlier than the bulbocodium. 
I have never seen a clear explanation of the 
different species of crocus, but if I understand 
it, we get our best yellow varieties from the 
Dutch crocus (C. Mesiacus) while the lilac, 
purple and white varieties are chiefly derived 
from C. vernus, which is the most important 
species. 
The most delightful way to grow crocuses 
is to scatter them in the lawn. If you have 
never done this, take my advice, and get a 
thousand mixed crocus bulbs for about three 
dollars and plant them with the aid of a dib- 
her, which will leave no unsightly holes in the 
lawn. A still better plan, if you can afford it, 
is to buy named varieties and use an English 
bulb planter, which extracts a neat core of sod 
each time and replaces one the next. One 
reason why crocuses look so charming in the 
grass is that they have a green setting, while 
those in the garden have to come out of the 
bare earth. The only drawback to this 
method is that the number of flowers is dim- 
inished every year, especially if you use the 
lawn mower before the leaves have a chance 
to yellow and decay, which shows that the 
bulb is ripening well. But even if a third of 
them disappear every season, it pays to plant 
