Crocus Danfordiae

Danford’s crocus is one of the smallest-flowered members of the genus, producing delicate late-winter or early-spring blooms in very pale yellow, white or soft blue. The narrow petals may be only a little over a centimetre long, giving the plant a refined, almost miniature quality that rewards close inspection. Native to rocky slopes, scrub and open pine woods in central and southern Turkey, it grows during the cool wet season and rests through a hot dry summer. Best displayed in an alpine pot or sheltered trough, it is a subtle collector’s crocus rather than a mass-market spectacle.