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| Click on Image to Enlarge First Crocus Blooms in the Garden |
I have always loved the look of the spring blooming crocus flowers that often provide colour even before the last snows of winter have melted away. Their appearance always fills me with hope.
Until last fall, though, I hadn't known the significance of the tiny crocus, as one of the first sources of nutrition for pollinators during the early months of spring; though, since I'm working hard at learning about and providing habitat for pollinating insects I decided that a practical gesture seemed appropriate.
Seriously, my newly acquired knowledge of the importance of the crocus sent me right out to the gardening store to purchase a generous selection of the corms – they’re not actually bulbs, I learned – necessary for early spring colour and pollinator sustenance.
A week or so ago, some of the crocus plants that incubated in my garden over the winter and have been slowly pushing up through the mulch and composting leaves, suddenly burst into bloom; and, they were glorious!
Some of the first-year crocus flowers, however, were eaten by visiting rabbits, a natural consequence of gardening with which I will have to grapple. Perhaps if I plant more corms this coming autumn, there will be enough sustenance to go around next spring … kind of a generous cross species cooperative, so to speak.
I think I could live with a sharing of valuable resources; but only time will tell about the other species involved, and neither of them are talking.
