# Confused Crocus **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536 "2012-01-24T21:01:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/1 "2012-01-24T21:01:04Z")
This afternoon when I went to get my mail I saw that my crocuses were in bloom [(here’s a pic I just took of one of them)](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v19/Biggirl/Garden%2012/CrocusinJanclose.jpg). What would cause them to bloom in January? Will they re-bloom in March or April? Am I about to see tulips in February? ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/2 "2012-01-24T21:37:13Z")
It’s not THAT unusual. They’re always the first things to bloom, and a couple of sunny days in the 50’s can do it. Where are you? I’ve seen crocus blooming through snow. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/3 "2012-01-24T21:40:42Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > It’s not THAT unusual. They’re always the first things to bloom, and a couple of sunny days in the 50’s can do it. Where are you? I’ve seen crocus blooming through snow. Crocuses do bloom through snow. They are usually the very first blooms of spring-- in March. This is the first time I’ve seen them bloom in January. I’m on Long Island. A 5 minute walk from Queens though, not way out east. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/4 "2012-01-24T21:41:00Z")
Band name! ---
**Author:** ![Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bag_of_mostly_water/32/1029_2.png) [@Bag\_of\_Mostly\_Water](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bag_of_Mostly_Water)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/5 "2012-01-24T21:49:24Z")
My Hyacinths sprouted two or three weeks ago (I’m in eastern PA). They were covered in snow yesterday, but it reached 55 F today. Maybe they know something I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/6 "2012-01-24T23:31:51Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > .. Am I about to see tulips in February? They do if you live down here in Texas. 🆒 The daffodils and tulips are already poking up. Then again, it’s been a particularly mild winter with practically no sub-freezing temps. (La Nina weather patterns - which, I imagine, are affecting you too as well.) ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/7 "2012-01-25T00:49:42Z")
I wonder what triggers the blooms. A freeze than thaw? Nah, then they’d bloom all willy-nilly after every Indian summer. Length of day? How’d they know underground. Plus, they wouldn’t be blooming now if it was length of day. We need a botanist in here. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/8 "2012-01-25T00:55:43Z")
My tulips are poking up already, but only on the sunny side of the house. I haven’t noticed any crocuses yet, but I think the bulbs are definitely confused and think it’s spring! ---
**Author:** ![snuffleupagus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@snuffleupagus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snuffleupagus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/9 "2012-01-25T01:04:36Z")
Horticulturist here- bulbs (and many other plants) require a certain number of chilling hours in the winter. This varies by species, crocuses have pretty short chilling requirements. Some daffodils (like paperwhites) have even shorter or nonexistent chilling requirements, while others like tulips require more hours. Once the chilling requirement is satisfied, they will bloom whenever you have a few warm days. Planting depth also has an effect, partly due to deeper soil taking longer to warm up in the spring, as well as just physically taking longer for the shoot to make it to the surface. So if you have, for example, a very early daffodil that frequently gets damaged by freezes in the spring, you can plant them a little deeper than recommended to delay emergence a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/10 "2012-01-25T01:29:37Z")
To add to what snuffleupagus said, to answer the question whether they will rebloom again in spring; no, the bloom is an annual event for the bulb, a ‘one time only’ thing for the season. You may still get some flowering display from some of the other remaining bulbs; those that have not been fooled into blooming early. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/11 "2012-01-25T01:34:05Z")
Aw. I love my crocuses in the spring. They let me know everything’s gonna be all right. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/12 "2012-01-25T02:29:30Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > My tulips are poking up already, but only on the sunny side of the house. I haven’t noticed any crocuses yet, but I think the bulbs are definitely confused and think it’s spring! I have daffodils coming up on the north side of the house. And one of the rose bushes pulled a one-cane bloom a little more than a week ago. I think the blooming late is meeting the blooming early. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/13 "2012-01-25T05:56:12Z")
Them are some bad-ass crocuses! If I were Chuck Norris, I’d look out. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/14 "2012-01-25T11:33:01Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I have daffodils coming up on the north side of the house. And one of the rose bushes pulled a one-cane bloom a little more than a week ago. I think the blooming late is meeting the blooming early. Between the rhododendrons blooming in late fall and my bulbs poking up in January, I’m going to have a very dull spring! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/15 "2012-01-25T22:48:51Z")
No crocuses, but daffodils. I’ve also been picking hyacinths from a pot that I got **Mrs. FtG** last year. Never got around to replanting them. I guess they got chilled more than the ones in the ground. The camellias bloomed earlier than usual. Started having cherry trees blossoming at the end of December. That one is really freaky. OTOH, the _dapne odura_ is taking its sweet time to open up. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confused-crocus/610536/16 "2012-01-26T21:07:51Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Crocuses do bloom through snow. They are usually the very first blooms of spring-- in March. I have Snowdrops (Galanthus) blooming now. Early (species) crocus will usually start blooming in late February/early March followed in a few weeks by giant Crocus. > [@](#): > > I’m on Long Island. A 5 minute walk from Queens though, not way out east. Me too, but more like a 20 minute drive.