Daffodils are ominously late this year owing to the horrible winter of 2009-2010. The snowdrops and crocuses have also been later – but not as far behind as the golden daffodil. Even the earliest large-flowered daffodil ‘Rijnveld’s Early Sensation’ is still not out as I write.

They are so late that when I was lured off my chosen path by a ‘Garden Open Today’ sign (while in the Malvern area on a Mother’s Day jaunt), there wasn’t a daffodil to be seen anywhere.

There were huge notices at the gate apologising for the fact that there were none out. It did not matter a jot. For the carpet of crocuses and snowdrops made up for it entirely.

The crocuses peppered the lawns to great effect like single jewels floating on a sea. There were no giant clumps, as you get with ordinary garden crocuses that produce more corms. These had all spread by self-seeding and the effect was much more natural. They were ‘tommies’ – a common name for Crocus tommasinianus. This species was named for Muzio G. Spirito de Tommasini (1794-1879), a botanist who studied Dalmatian flora.

He was also the mayor of the city of Trieste. This slender crocus, which grows wild in Bulgaria, Hungary and former Yugoslavia, mimics a champagne flute in shape. Brian Mathew records, in his excellent monograph on crocus, that in parts of Montenegro and Hercegovina it carpets the woodland thickly, rather like our bluebells. Gardeners fall into two categories when it comes to rather invasive self-seeders. They either embrace them or resent them. So before you plant any you should perhaps decide what side you’re on.

I’ve always loved them because they flower early – often in January. But they do produce huge seed capsules. This has advantages.

In the garden I visited they had hybridised to great effect over many years, possibly a century or more. There were whites, rosy purples, lavenders and white and purple bicolors.

This crocus was introduced in 1847 and named varieties include the red-purple ‘Ruby Giant’, ‘Pictus’ (a lavender with white tips), ‘Taplow Ruby’ (the deepest purple-red of all) and the albino ‘Albus’.

There are others, if you can track them down. The rare ‘Eric Smith’ has eight white petals very lightly flecked in purple. ‘Whitewell Purple’ is the most available.

In the wild, there is little variation between them, apparently. But once several gather in a garden hybrids appear. Edward Bowles, dubbed the Crocus King, selected and named a few from his garden at Myddleton House near Enfield. One is called ‘Bobbo’ after the sharp-eyed boy who discovered it. (Log on to to this website for more pictures of crocus – www.alpinegarden.com.mbnailindexcrocus) The garden I visited was Madresfield Court, the home of the Lygon family. Evelyn Waugh visited regularly and it is said to have inspired the setting and characters for Brideshead Revisited – among other works. The five barred windows of the nursery wing at the back of the house face west with a restricted view of the moat and a tall yew hedge. There, Waugh hid himself away for several hours a day, to write.

Madresfield Court is open by appointment between April and July, (telephone 01684 573614/ Madresfield@clara.co.uk