Crocus Robertianus

Robert’s crocus is an autumn-flowering Greek species with relatively large, graceful flowers in pale to medium lilac, sometimes almost silvery in cool light. A yellow throat and bright orange style provide a warm centre, while narrow striped leaves emerge with or soon after the blooms. It grows naturally in scrub and open woodland in north-western and central Greece, where the soil remains cool and moist during the growing season but becomes drier in summer without baking hard. This preference makes it well suited to a sheltered trough or alpine pot with humus-rich, sharply drained compost.