The reason for this planting was to mirror Kidderminster's twin town Husum where every March there is a Crocus Festival featuring millions of these little purple flowers.
The Husum Festival is a major event in the town and attracts visitors from far and wide to celebrate Spring arriving on the coast of northeast Germany. At this time each year the town turns purple. Husum's most famous son Theodor Storm (1817–1888) a novelist, poet and short story writer described Husum in a celebrated poem as the grey town by the grey sea (German: Die graue Stadt am grauen Meer). Husum may indeed be grey for most of the year but in March it is awash in a sea of vibrant purple crocuses and in collaboration with the Husum Twinning Association a taste of the Festival can be had in St George's Park. The purple crocuses along with yellow ones and other Spring flowers have over the last week or so, begun the display we've all been waiting for. As one of the pictures below shows this new growth is set against a backdrop of a few, still flowering marigolds from last Autumn, which have kept their cheery colour throughout the Winter by the kissing gate and along the railings on Radford Avenue. It is great to see the first shoots of Spring bursting through in what promises to be the best daffodil display in the park ever between the Radford Avenue main gate and the tennis court.
So why not visit the park and have a look at what is happening? St George's is the People's Park that brings nature right up to the very edge of the town centre, it is the green jewel on the Ring Road, a place to relax, play sports and games, walk the dog or just sit on a bench and enjoy the arrival of Spring just a short step from the heart of Kidderminster.