The easiest way to plant crocuses is to place the tubers in the bed, lawn or meadow. In principle, it is also possible to propagate crocuses from seeds. But this only works if they are wild crocuses.
How to grow crocuses from seeds?
Growing crocuses from seeds is possible with wild crocuses by stripping and scattering the seed capsules. Grown crocuses usually require specialist seeds. The seed has to go through a cold phase in order to be able to germinate, grows slowly out of the ground in spring and only blooms the following year.
Seeds from cultivated crocuses including almost never
To grow crocuses from seeds, you must buy seeds from a specialist retailer (€2.00 on Amazon) for noble cultivation. Cultivated crocuses also produce seeds. However, this does not germinate because the tubers are pre-treated.
Collecting seeds would only be worthwhile, if at all, from wild crocuses. However, these sow so easily that harvesting the seeds is unnecessary.
If you would like to sow other beds in your garden with wild crocuses, cut off the seed pods and scatter them on the desired planting site.
This is how the crocus forms the seed
- Flower is fertilized
- Fruit node forms underground
- Seed node growing from the soil
- Chambers open
- Seed is scattered
The seed formation of the crocus is somewhat unusual. After the seed threads have been fertilized by insects, the ovary forms underground.
It's slowly growing out of the ground. As soon as the seeds in the fruiting body have matured, the chambers open and scatter the seeds onto the surrounding soil.
If you want the crocuses to self-seed, do not cut off the spent flowers. If the crocuses are growing on the lawn, do not mow until the seed pods have opened.
Crocus seeds need to be stratified
The crocus seed can only germinate if it has gone through a cold phase. It's easiest if the crocus sows itself.
The seeds just stay on the ground. In winter they get enough cold to overcome the germination inhibition.
As soon as the ground warms up, the seeds begin to germinate. However, flowers usually only appear in the coming year because tuber formation takes several months to complete.
Tips & Tricks
You suddenly have a lot of crocuses growing in your garden that you never planted? Maybe it's the compost you bought from the city composting facility. These often contain seeds from wild crocuses.