Crocus vernus ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ produces immense, eye-catching, pure white chalices accented with faint purple stripes at the base, orange stigmas, and yellow anthers in early spring. Best grown in full sun or light shade underneath the canopy of deciduous trees, these adaptable early spring flowers have difficulty naturalizing in the Chicago area because of predation by voles, chipmunks, rabbits, and deer. Nevertheless, they are a hallmark of spring, and their price makes augmenting the plantings every three to four years affordable. Crocus vernus is one of the largest of the crocus species and is native to southern and eastern Europe. Long a favorite of Dutch hybridizers, this bloodline is found in many of the modern larger-flowered cultivars. This cultivar was hybridized in the mid-1920s by W. J. Eldering, an early Dutch pioneer in the creation of garden-adapted cultivars.