Crocus chrysanthus Cream Beauty

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' blooms very early in the season, at the same time as snowdrops. With a soft beige-cream hue warmed with yellow and punctuated with orange stamens on the inside, the small cups with a bronze base are slightly marked with purple. This pretty bulbous plant is relatively vigorous. It will easily naturalise in the garden, in lawns, borders, and sunny rockeries. The bulbs also look beautiful in pots on a patio.

Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' belongs to the Iridaceae family. It is a prolific horticultural hybrid, forming large colonies in upright clumps measuring 10cm (4in) in height. It grows and multiplies quickly. Flowering takes place from February to March depending on the climate. A multitude of cup-shaped flowers open up in a star shape. The exterior of the corolla is beige-cream maculated with bronze at the base, sometimes touched with purple reflections. The throat is a brighter yellow, adorned with bright orange stamens. The flowers close at night and in bad weather, but open wide in the sun, even in partial shade. The foliage is deciduous, composed of fine linear, single leaves. They are shiny dark green with a white-silver central band. The bulbs are corms. A corm is, in plant morphology, an underground storage organ that looks like a bulb, but is formed by a swollen stem surrounded by scales.

Crocuses are undisputed stars of the garden, as they are the first heralds of spring. Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' is wonderful in rock gardens, flower beds, and along pathways, in well-drained soil. It will also thrive on the edge of light woodland with primroses, along a hedge, planted en masse at the base of deciduous trees (lilacs, mock orange, viburnums) with hellebores and Cyclamen coum, or in the middle of a lawn with winter aconites, snowdrops or a carpet of violets, and of course, with other early-flowering crocuses. This crocus is suitable for planting in outdoor pots, and can be used for green roofs.

Crocus roots can contract like a spring, allowing the plant to settle at its ideal depth.