Crocus tommasinianus Ruby Giant - Early Crocus

Cocus tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant' is a beautiful botanical crocus, with large dark purple star-shaped flowers illuminated by an orange-yellow stigma. This small bulbous plant blooms in early spring, before Dutch hybrid crocuses, heralding the return of spring. It is an easy-to-grow plant, which often naturalises in lawns, flower beds, and rockeries. It makes lovely ephemeral pot arrangements. It should be cultivated in full sun or partial shade, in any well-drained, poor soil.

Crocus tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant' belongs to the Iridaceae family. It originates from Hungary, Croatia, former Yugoslavia (Serbia, Montenegro), and Bulgaria. This prolific plant forms significant colonies in upright clumps that reach a height of 15cm (6in). It has a rapid growth rate. Flowering occurs from February to March. The plants produce slightly larger flowers than those of the typical species. They are cup-shaped and star-shaped, in a fairly dark purple-violet shade, with whiter areas inside the petals, up to the throat. The flower's centre is filled with bright orange-yellow stamens grouped in a 'tube'. The flowers close at night and in bad weather, but open wide in the sun and even in partial shade. The foliage is deciduous, composed of thin, linear, thick leaves, which are single and alternate with a shiny medium green colour and a silver-white central band. The 'bulbs' are corms. A corm is an underground storage organ in plant morphology, resembling a bulb, but formed by a swollen stem surrounded by scales.

Crocus tommasinianus 'Ruby Giant' looks stunning in rockeries when its flowering emerges from sun-bleached stones. It will also thrive in the edge of a bright woodland, along a hedge, planted en masse at the base of deciduous trees (lilac, mock orange, viburnums) with Anemone blanda and Cyclamen coum, or in the middle of a lawn alongside winter aconites, snowdrops, or a carpet of violets, and of course, paired with other early-flowering crocuses. This crocus is suitable for outdoor pot planting, and can be used for green roofs.

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