WOW !!  Just the other day, my great friend and Irish gardening legend Helen Dillon was in Vancouver giving a talk to the Master Gardeners ! We were invited to dinner with her, and I was to pick her up at her hotel and bring her to the house. I decided to take ‘the scenic route’ to the dinner,and drove us through Shaughnessy, Vancouver’s oldest and nicest neighbourhood. We all screamed with delight at the corner of Matthews and Alexandra  streets, where this incredible boulevard planting of crocus was just about to close-up for the night. The simplicity of using just two colours is what makes it work. If yellow had been included, it would look too ‘Eastery’ . When the crocus are finished, the grass will be mown and the bulbs will rest til next year. It is the best example of this any of us has ever seen.  It could also be done with snowdrops, narcissus , little scillas or chionodoxas. These smaller bulbs are suited to planting in grass as their season is early and they won’t look messy later as they are dormant and out of the way of lawn mowers !  If you are out of garden space , think about the boulevard as a fresh canvas and plant your own gift to the neighbourhood !