Help Identifying Corm - Autumn

Two years ago I noticed pretty green grass with white stripes through the center. I had no idea what it was and my husband thought it was a weed so he started pulling them out. They have never bloomed and in the 9 years my husband has lived here he has never seen them bloom either. The corm has a paper like tunic with not many fibers that might be because conditions have been very dry and my soil is not the best, some of the bulbs planted 9 years ago have been rotting like crazy.
Anyway, I need to know if they are crocuses. The leaves come up in early autumn and die back in early winter. Any ideas?

Well, I don't know what it is, but your description doesn't fit a crocus. Crocus come up in the very early spring, often the first ones to bloom. Then after a period of renewing the bulb, they will die back in early summer.

Karen

I think there are some fall blooming crocuses as well although they're less common. But I don't know of any with leaves that fit this description (green grass with white stripes through the center)

Yeah I don't think I described it very well as far as it's foliage goes. The leaves are never more than 6 inches long if that, there is a pale white wrap around the bottom of the leaves like it is holding them there. They are lance shaped dark green with white stripes. I know same thing I just said but, I just found more and more of them today. These things propagate rapidly.

Can you post a pic of the leaves? That might help more than the pic of the corm.

I can't post a picture of the leaves in my yard because they have not come up, the corms are getting ready I think they have that little tip at the top when they are getting ready to grow. The leaves look like the ones in this picture but a little thicker. does that help?

here is another example of the leaves (ignore the bloom because I have no idea what that actually looks like). :) THANK YOU PLEASE HELP

Sure sounds like it could be fall-blooming crocus. What kind of conditions is this plant growing in (shade, full sun, etc.)? Also, are you fertilizing it? If it should be producing flowers, it could simply be planted in the wrong site and need to be moved to different lighting. Also, some fertilizer designed specifically for flowering plants might help. Even if it doesn't flower, looks like it would make a pretty border plant. It will be interesting to see if anyone can I.D. it.

The flower garden has been here long before me, and I never got into gardening until I was unable to work. But now that I have been looking at it more the soil is compacted, I don't think the drainage is very good and the soil is also heavy. It is in full sun with zero shade. Surprisingly enough it has been the one thing that has survived in that flower garden this year. I dug up the daffodils to divide them, because they have not been tended to after my husband bought this house 10 years ago. I noticed the soil as being very heavy with a lot of clay. Also, the daffodils were all rotting only a few out of the hundreds that I pulled out of the ground survived. The rose bushes which I had flourishing last year are dying now and I can't figure out why. These corms are the only thing that are still alive in that bed. I brought them inside and planted them in pots with the proper soil and fertilizer and conditions perfect for flowering. I hope then I will be able to identify it.

I don't think your corm is a fall-blooming crocus. I Googled for fall-blooming crocus and found that they have short foliage that comes up in the spring, dies down after a few weeks, and then nothing until they bloom (sans any new foliage) about August to November, depending on the area.

Karen

they are sounding more like spring Crocus to me, but there are many, many small garden bulbs that all look the same when they first come through the soil, the reason these bulbs have perhaps lasted in your heavy clay soil is that they are so close to the surface of the soil, they are not sitting in the damp under deep ground, the daffs dont like cold wet conditions and roses dont like this either as clay soil is cold in winter, holds onto too much moisture and the nutrients get leeched away faster, best thing to do is add as much compost/manure as you can lay your hands on so you open the soil up a bit and this will let the water drain away faster and also let some air into the soil as plant roots need this too, as for your bulbs, I would have done the same as you and planted some into pots to allow them to bloom to find out exactly what they are, dont know what zone you are in, but with soil improvement it allows you to grow a larger variety of plants. good luck, WeeNel.