Crocus versicolor Picturatus

Crocus versicolor 'Picturatus' is a delightful form with pure white flowers striped with mauve. It comes from a botanical species called the variegated crocus or changing crocus. This small bulbous plant blooms from February in favourable climates, and in March elsewhere. It is one of the easiest species to cultivate and naturalise in lawns, flower beds, and rockeries. It will grow in limestone and poor soil. It tolerates moist soils better than other botanical crocuses in summer.

Crocus versicolor, also known as Crest Crocus, belongs to the Iridaceae family. It originates from the southeast of France. It grows in limestone soils, on sunny hillsides, and in low-altitude pastures. This prolific crocus forms large colonies in upright clumps measuring 10 to 15cm (4 to 6in) in height. It has a rapid growth rate. Flowering occurs from February to March.

'Picturatus' bears delicate flowers, 2 to 3.5cm (1in) long. They are cup-shaped and open into a star-shaped flower. They are pure white on the inside. The exterior of the 3 outer petals is streaked with mauve-violet. The golden yellow flower heart is adorned with yellow-orange stamens grouped in a 'tube', with a white base. The flowers close at night and in bad weather, opening in the sun and even in partial shade. The foliage is deciduous, composed of fine, thick, simple, and alternate linear leaves. They are medium green with a slightly grey, shiny, central white-silver band. 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 versicolor 'Picturatus' works wonders in rockeries, when its flowering emerges from stones bleached by the sun, or when it adorns the edge of a sinuous path. It will also thrive on the edge of clear undergrowth, along a hedge, planted en masse at the base of deciduous trees (lilac, mock orange, viburnum) with Anemone blanda 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 variety is also suitable for outdoor pot planting. Perennial bloody cranesbills can also accompany it in borders: they will occupy the space when the crocus foliage has dried up in summer.

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