Corms

Today I am learning about corms. My previous understanding of corms was limited to this:

Yesterday I dug up about ten sad, bedraggled crocuses from the back planter and started researching how to propagate them. Turns out that what we all refer to as "bulb" plants include five different types of plant structures: true bulbs, tubers, rhizomes, tuberous roots, and the adorably-named corms.

Here is a picture of crocus corms I snagged off the intertubes (if SOPA passes, you won't be able to see it).

Kind of gross-looking, aren't they? Well the ones I dug up look even worse. It looks like the main corms, in the absence of water and nutrients, gave up hope and started sending out little "help me" shoots from all sides... these became malnourished sprouts that sent up new leaves and then just stopped growing. In the hopes of rescuing these mistreated plants, I'm going to separate the baby corms (or "cormels") from the main ones, store them all over the winter, and replant in clean soil this spring. I have no idea if it's going to work, but it should be an interesting experiment.