34 
House 
& Garden 
FIRST 
TO BLOOM 
The Crocus, the Earliest 
Venturer Into the 
Garden 
MARION COFFIN 
Landscape-Architect 
In some parts of this 
crocus border the bidbs 
are planted thick, line 
upon line, with the cups 
so near together that 
they are no longer see ft 
as individual flowers, but 
as long-drawn splashes 
of color. At these spots 
the tree trunks act as 
foils and the little patches 
of brown earth that do 
manage to show between 
the wide-spread chalice 
blooms serve to deepen 
the coloring of the cro¬ 
cuses themselves 
Ai the first important 
flowers of the early spring 
we love the crocuses, 
even when only a few 
spring up in the grass or 
along the border. But 
how much more wonder¬ 
ful are they when there 
are hundreds upon hun¬ 
dreds of them I Some¬ 
times they come up sin¬ 
gly or in thinly scattered 
groups, perhaps ordy six, 
perhaps a dozen cups to¬ 
gether with the sturdy, 
dark trunks of leafless 
trees rising about them 
