Helping You Become a More Successful Gardener
Plant Search
Russell Stafford
Iridaceae
CROCUS 'Skyline'
Hybrid Crocus, Spring Crocus
Providing a welcome burst of color at winter's end, this crocus opens its ethereal flowers even as the last remnants of snow linger. Introduced in 1972, it is one of many hybrids that trace their ancestry to Crocus chrysanthus and C. biflorus.
Growing from a small bulb-like storage organ known as a corm, this diminutive herbaceous perennial sends up one to four pale blue flowers in winter or early spring, just as the grassy, shiny, dark green leaves emerge. Held singly atop ankle-high, stalk-like floral tubes, the up-facing, goblet-shaped blooms have six "petals" (or segments) in two whorls. The three outer segments have several darker blue stripes running the length of their exteriors. The stripes merge into a gray basal blotch. In bright sun the flowers open wide to reveal orange stigmas and a whitish eye. The floral tube is blue-gray. The foliage goes dormant by late spring.
Grow 'Skyline' in friable, well-drained soil in full sun or light shade (when it is in leaf). Plant corms at a depth of two to three times their height in late summer or early fall. Ten or more weeks of near-freezing temperatures are needed to induce flowering. Group this little beauty in rock gardens, mixed borders, alpine troughs, or turfgrass, or force it in pots to help quell winter doldrums.
8 - 1
3 - 8
1a, 1b, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Bulb or Corm or Tuber
Full Sun, Partial Sun
3"-4" / 7.6cm - 10.2cm
2"-4" / 5.1cm - 10.2cm
Early Spring, Late Winter
Hybrid Origin
Acidic, Neutral
Well Drained
Loam, Sand
Drought
Medium
Average Water
Clump-Forming
Spring, Winter
Showy
Blue, Light Blue
Striped
Green
Yes
No
Single
Fine
Glossy
Container, Lawns and Turf, Mixed Border, Rock Garden / Wall
© 2006-2021 Preferred Commerce. All Rights Reserved.
