Naturalising snowdrops/crocus in my lawn - crazy idea?

[LtGreggs]

I'm looking out at my winter garden and thinking that it would be fun if there were early snowdrops or crocus underplanted across the whole lawn. How crazy is that idea?

Would they completely disappear such that it was a normal lawn for walking on in the summer? How long do you have to leave after flowering before cutting. (I read warning about leaving daffodils for a long time - does that imply that other bulbs don't need left long?)

It's a standard rectangular back garden lawn, maybe 5m x 10m - it's not some kind of meadow/wild area. Generally we've done not bad in keeping some winter interest in the borders - evergreens, cornus etc. But secret bulbs in lawn would be exciting??

Central Scotland - AGES until grass needs cut, but bulbs are also behind the southern timescale.

Plant them, you might need to mow round them for the first cut or so but snowdrops and crocuses look lovely and don't take as long to die back as daffs ime.
They will multiply.....

Yeah, and use Monty Don's trick to make them look natural. He throws the bulbs randomly on the lawn and plants then where they land. It looks lovely.

Good point about the multiplying. I guess I don't want a full mat of snowdrops! There are two apple trees in the lawn - maybe I should do a sprinkling under each tree.

You need a lot to make an impact- I have a similar size lawn to you and did a swathe down one side about a meter wide. I think I put in about 2000 bulbs. It does look lovely.

Grass gets cut short in late autumn and then left til it really really needs it in spring

Crocuses are better than snowdrops for spreading through the lawn as snowdrops leaves are a thick clump and will leave holes in lawn. Maybe do a few clumps of snowdrops under the tree rather than throughout the lawn.

MotherofCrocodiles - that sounds great. A swathe at the long side of lawn against the border would kind of look like the border leaching out in to the lawn (in a good way)? Or I could do it at the short end far from house, and it would be like the spring reaching out to us... (OK, maybe over-romantising the reality!)

So, I will consider pale crocus instead of snowdrops. Am. Going to keep an eye out locally for the earliest crocus coming up and try and work out the variety.

Not at all crazy, quite a mainstream practice in fact.

You can cut from end May. By this time the leaves will have died down (you need to leave the leaves till they die down as they are making next year's flowers). Rather than let the border leach out into the lawn, I'd be inclined to leave a strip clear between border and lawn, and mow that. If your un-mown lawn has a neatly mown border, and maybe a mown path through the middle, it looks tidy and intentional.

Snowdrops don't multiply very fast in a lawn, or at least in my lawn, but they do look lovely. Crocus tommasianus and its varieties are the earliest - pale lilac, sometimes two-toned, and they bulk up well. Then as they are in mid bloom, there are a number of species crocus which also naturalise well, and a number of species tulips - not the big tulips that we all recognise, but dainty little things about 6 inches high whose flowers open wide to reveal the colours inside. have a look at broadleighbulbs.co.uk/wp/ for ideas as to what will naturalise well, and look at the species tulip section on Avon Bulbs www.avonbulbs.co.uk/autumn-planted-bulbs/tulip-bulbs/species-and-dwarf-tulips

My mum grow crocus and snow drops on a 1 meter wide strip along the back edge of the lawn. Always looks really beautiful.

Yes crocus tommaseanus is what I have in two shades of purple.

Oddly there is a similar display at work and they come up about a month earlier than mine despite being the same species I think. Those are usually out late jan but mine are late feb (southern England)