This is the second spring that the Tommie crocuses have returned. Typically squirrels love to eat crocus bulbs, but they haven't bothered these, perhaps because they are too tiny to notice. Crocus tomasinianus flowers are even smaller than those of Crocus chrysanthus. The flowers bloom on 3-inch stems and are about the size of a quarter. They are too short to plant in the buffalograss. I put mine under a redbud, to bloom before the redbud leafs out. All the photos I've seen of Tommie crocuses show them blooming in dense bunches. Maybe when mine have multiplied I will get more excited about them. Luckily, Tommie crocuses are supposed to be one of the best crocuses for naturalizing because, being species, they seed. I got my bulbs from McClure and Zimmerman via the now-defunct garden.com. They are supposed to be 'Whitewell Purple' which is described by various sources as "reddish purple".

More than any other Crocus, it has increased until in certain parts of the rock garden it forms a thick turf. It seeds freely and also increases from the corms. It is very hardy and is one of the very early bloomers.

Louise Beebe Wilder. Adventures with Hardy Bulbs. p. 123.