Crocus minimus Bavella

Crocus minimus 'Bavella' is a beautiful form of the little crocus, with particularly dark flowers, selected in Corsica at the Col de Bavella. The species is named so because of the modest size of its flowers. In March-April, it produces intense purple flowers with the reverse strongly variegated with aubergine purple. It should be planted in moist but well-drained, slightly acidic to acidic soil in an alpine garden, a gravel garden, or a rockery. It will easily naturalise.

Crocus minimus 'Bavella' is similar to another botanical species called C. corsicus, which differs from it mainly by its red stamens instead of orange ones. Like all crocuses, it belongs to the Iridaceae family. Its natural environment corresponds to the west coast of Corsica, where it is found up to 700m (2297ft) altitude, as well as the mountainous massifs of Sardinia up to 1800m (5905ft). In these regions, it blooms from January to April, on slopes and in woods, on rather acidic and moist soil. In cultivation, the plant blooms in March-April, after the last severe frosts. Each bulb produces 1 to 2 flowers measuring 2cm (1in) long that emerge from the ground. The cup-shaped flowers first display their violet reverse marked with a very dark central variegation. Then they open into a star shape with 6 branches, in a slightly translucent texture. The heart of the flower is filled with stamens grouped in a 'tube'. The flowers close at night and in bad weather, and open widely in the sun and even in partial shade. The foliage is deciduous in summer, composed of fine linear leaves, which are single and alternate. They are light green with a pronounced midrib. The 'bulbs' here 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.

Crocus minimus 'Bavella', like other botanical species, is irreplaceable in rockeries and at the base of bushes, when its radiant flowering bursts forth like a beautiful surprise in the early days of spring. It will thrive in any well-drained soil, on the edge of a light woodland with Corsican hellebore, along a path, planted en masse at the base of deciduous shrubs (lilacs, mock oranges, viburnums) with Anemone blanda and Cyclamen coum, or in a raised bed, and of course, with other early-flowering crocuses. It is well adapted to alpine gardens.

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