Crocus minimus

Crocus minimus is also known as the small crocus due to the modest size of its flowers, which are delicate and bright. This botanical crocus is native to the mountains of Corsica and Sardinia. It produces small mauve-lilac flowers veined with violet in March-April, with the reverse strongly variegated with purple-violet. As they open, they reveal a pale-yellow throat adorned with yellow-orange stamens and a feathery red style. It should be planted in well-drained, slightly acidic to acidic soil, preferably in a cool, alpine garden, a gravel garden, or a rockery, where it will easily naturalise.

Crocus minimus is a botanical species closely related to C. corsicus, which is mainly differentiated by its red stamens instead of orange. Like all crocuses, it belongs to the Iridaceae family. Its natural habitat corresponds to the west coast of Corsica, where it can be found up to 700m (2297ft) altitude, as well as the mountains of Sardinia up to 1800m (5905ft). In these regions, it flowers from January to April on slopes and in woods, in rather acidic and moist soil. In cultivation, the plant flowers in March-April, after the last severe frosts. Each bulb produces 1 to 2 flowers, measuring 2cm (1in) in length, which emerge from the ground. The cup-shaped flowers first display their mauve-lilac reverse with a wide central variegation of violet-purple. Then they open into a star shape with 6 branches, with a slightly translucent texture. The centre of the flower is filled with stamens grouped in a 'tube'. The flowers close at night and in bad weather, but open widely in the sun and even in partial shade. The foliage is deciduous, composed of fine linear leaves, which are single and alternate. They are light green with a prominent central vein. 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, like other botanical species, is irreplaceable in slightly moist rockeries and at the base of bushes, when its radiant flowering bursts forth as a beautiful surprise in early spring. It will thrive in well-drained soil, on the edge of a clear understory with Corsican hellebore, along a pathway, planted en masse at the base of deciduous shrubs (lilacs, mock oranges, viburnums) with Anemone blanda and Cyclamen coum, or on a raised bed, and of course, paired with other early-flowering crocuses. It is also well-suited to alpine gardens.

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