HUNDREDS of purple crocus bulbs have been planted in Colchester's Castle Park to bring a blanket of purple to the city. 

The Rotary Club of Colchester marked this year’s World Polio Day with the gesture to raise awareness of polio eradication efforts.

In Castle Park, club members planted more than 1,000 purple crocus bulbs, symbolising the ongoing campaign to end polio worldwide.

Additionally, they donated crocus corms to 11 schools, encouraging students to participate in the cause.

The purple crocuses are a vivid reminder of Rotary International’s role in polio eradication, with the colour purple symbolising the “purple pinkie” used to mark children’s fingers once they receive the polio vaccine.

Rotarian Peter Rutland said: "One of the things we do with the crocus corns is because the colour for polio is purple.

"Part of the reason for that is when they go and vaccinate children in primarily Asian countries, they get their finger dipped in some purple dye, and the purple crocuses are just to commemorate that.

“For a number of years now, we have been planting these crocuses in Castle Park.

“They’re on one of the slopes looking up to the castle, and each year we plant them around this time.

"By February and March, they’re in full bloom, coinciding with Rotary’s anniversary on February 23.”

Since Rotary’s campaign against polio began in 1988, cases have dropped by 99.9 per cent, with only a few instances remaining in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Rutland explained,

Mr Rutland said: “We started in the Philippines, and since then, Rotary has partnered with the World Health Organization and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to vaccinate millions of people.

"But we want to eradicate it entirely because, as we’ve seen recently in Gaza, it can always come back.”

The Rotary Club of Colchester also promotes Purple Pinkie Day in schools, where students can dress in pink or purple for a small donation to the End Polio Now campaign. Rutland described the initiative:

“We give the schools crocuses to plant, and on Purple Pinkie Day, they do a non-uniform day, wearing pink or purple, and they donate a small amount of money which all goes towards the End Polio Now Campaign and that is the money we need to vaccinate people all throughout the world really.”