Bring Spring

Crocus is a perennial flowering plants, native to a large area from coastal and subalpine areas of central and southern Europe (including the islands of the Aegean), North Africa and the Middle East, across Central Asia to western China.

The genus Crocus is placed in the iris family. The plants grow from corms and are mainly hardy perennials, and are found in a wide range of habitats, including woodland, scrub and meadows.

There are about eighty species of crocus. Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. Their color varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The grass-like, ensiform leaf shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis. The leaf margin is entire. Crocuses typically have three stamens. The spice saffron is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn/fall-blooming species.

This is my first spring owning my new home and it's fun to see all the flowers sprouting and trying to figure out what they are. One easy-to-identify flower are crocuses, since the buds have already formed.

I was trying to be a gardener earlier (when it was warm in Erie), and while I was attempting to clear the flower bed, I knocked this bud off. But I brought it inside and it opened right up!

Bring Spring! My crocuses want to bloom!