Naturalising Crocus in lawns

I've got to naturalise some 10-15,000 crocus bulb into a lawn and am thinking of using a petrol turf cutter to cut the turf, then roll it up, place the bulbs, and roll it back. Despite endless research, however, I can't find anyone using this method. It seems to me that it would save a lot of time and effort. Is it feasible? Are there any downsides?

 

Hi woodsman, I suppose it could be done like that, it wouldn't do the lawn
a lot of good though. would it not be better to plant them in large clumps
rather than covering the whole lawn area, you would obviously have to
plant the bulbs below soil level before you reinstate the turf, it will be hard
work but I hope it works out, would love to see some pictures when they are
up and flowering 10 - 15,000 wow!! that will be quite a sight. good luck!!.

Pete

 

Yes I too would love to see that amount when in bloom .Wishing you luck.

 

It's a great method. Once the bulbs are down place a piece of board such as sterling board over the bulbs and roll a lightweight garden roller over the top of the board to press the bulbs down slightly. If you use a water filled roller you can vary the weight so you don't crush the bulbs, the board also helps dissipate the weight. Repeat until the whole area is covered then roll back the turf. Don't forget to take photos of the resulting display!

 

Sorry I can't answer your question BUT
I don't grow crocus anymore.
I don't know if it's down to global warming (I believe half a degree can make a difference to some plants) but I find they just come up and fall over. Not worth growing when they used to be lovely.
How do others get on ?

 

Pretty much the same as yourself Alice, they just flop over and look a mess plus the problem comes when you mow the lawn-you would be cutting off the stems which continue to produce fuel for the bulb to fatten up once they have finished flowering. I have better results from the very early flowering miniature daffodils in my lawn.

As far as using a turf cutter-I saw Monty do it once with daffodils on GW. And if Monty does it then why not.

 

I planted 100 bulbs in the lawn only yesterday. Ok, not quite the epic proportions that the OP will have to deal with, but I cut sections of turf, rolled them back, scattered the bulbs, making sure they were then pointing the right way up and replaced the turf. With all the rain recently, at least the ground was soft enough to do this, I dread to think how difficult it would have been trying the same in July!

I don't mind the wait before cutting the grass. Any crocus bulbs I have planted in the past seem to come up fine...although I might try some of those minature daffs Claire mentions as well

 

Ok, the first mission to planting naturalising crocus is to have them come up looking naturlising in the spring, that means in a haphazard arrangement over the area.
When I planted mine (not as many as yours) I threw them in the air, where they landed I planted. In your method they will look too structured in the spring.

The second thing is they really don't need to be planted that deep. And if you picked the right ones, in spring of 2012 all those you planted will pop babies around them.

So your main issue is the amount. Crazy amount. I usually plant only a thousand of something every fall for the past 18 years, now we are splitting in the spring for the past 3 years. (ok, my issue)

Wondering why you ordered so many, is this your full time job? I have a huge front yard (2 1/2 acres) and 500 of them did the trick.

I can't offer you a good solution for this many, sorry. But I do know all I do is lift the grass & some soil not deeply push them in and pad the clump back and move on, because again, they do not need real deep.

 

It's not a crazy amount! A client of mine planted his estate over a three year period. 450,000 bulbs each year for three years on a 900 acre plot and they didn't even scratch the surface.

 

Hardly compares, but I did 100 this week and that was a tiny space and they were used up in no time. I'm wondering if I should get more - it's a grassy area 6 foot x 10 foot, but not all of it needs covering.

 

Thanks everyone for all of your responses.

In no particular order: the area to be planted is about 100 sq metres, and I work on somewhere betweeen 100 - 150 crocus bulbs per m2 for good coverage (so I would get some more, Sussexgardener!). The area is within a much larger lawn, so I'll be laying them out to come up in a "natural" drift in front of trees and a hedge line, with suitably organic edges, thus avoiding a "planted" look.

I'm planting 9 varieties - a mix of tommasinianus, vernus and chrysanthus, predominantly in good old yellow, purple, and white but with smaller amounts of bronze, pink and mauve for a bit of a twist. I'm avoiding the really big ones to minimise the risk of the blooms falling over (I agree with both of you, Alice and Lollipop - perhaps the bulb producers have gone too far in the quest for ever "showier" blooms and the result is that the larger ones can no longer support their own weight, especially in our ever damper springs?) They'll be planted in clumps of colour, but the bulbs will be randomly planted within the clumps to avoid any hint of structure (although I have been toying with a highly structured planting scheme that I would like to try - it's just a case of persuading someone to let me do it in their garden!).

I'll use the cutter for the main part of the drift, the edges I'll do by spade-lifting. The cutter cuts the turf to a depth of 35mm, so planting depth is not a problem - I'll loosen the soil once the cutter has done its job, which will make placing the bulbs at the right depth and seating them securely easier (and thanks Axl, for the inspired sterling board idea. I'll give it a go). Loosening the soil, and adding a little top dressing of fertiliser before relaying should help the turf to cope with its ordeal. The lawn won't look great for a while, but should recover quite quickly. And I'll take photos and post them.

And finally - Axl - if it was 450,000 a year for three years, it would look fantastic, but I fear you'd have to bury me with them by the 4th year!

 

Good luck - post some pictures of them when they are all in bloom next year.

 

Will do - and thanks again all. Btw, Axl, it occurred to me that you could expand on the sterling board idea by cutting a 1m2 board, sticking say 100 small bolts through it, then rollering it to make little holes for the bulbs. Just a thought...

 

You might be on to something. You could use a length of pipe 'loaded' with bulbs with your finger placed over the bottom and drop the bulbs into the holes. Once you get going it wouldn't take long. The board may take a while to make but once done could be reused pretty much ad infinitum.

 

And if you could find a way of combining all of this and putting it on the back of a tractor, you'd be sorted!:gnthb: