Crocus - July 08 SH

[Lesley Cox]

Crocus growth has slowed here in the last week or so, the weather generally being very cold and miserable, a lot of rain and snow. Yesterday though, these opened.

Crocus vitellinus is really tiny but full of colour. It will go into a trough in the summer. New this year from Marcus Harvey.


From MH last year and enough now to plant out in the garden, C. korolkowii 'Golden Nugget.'


Likewise, C. korolkowii, dark throat.




And some more seedlings of the C. cvijicii/veluchensis cross. The bronzy one looks good. These are seedlings from a single pod.

[Paul T]

All lovely, Lesley.  One of my korolkowii from Marcus has a flower open, but so cold here that it hasn't properly opened enough yet to see properly.  I say it is "open" because it is fully up and would be if there was any actual sun here.    Love those last hybrids.  Lovely mix.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Lesley,
I love C. korolkowii dark throat !  Beautiful !

[matoutdoors]

Lesley.... Im curious wether you did the Crocus cvijicii x veluchensis cross yourself. I did the same cross a few years ago now and have quite similar plants. I guess since the seed was offered by Archibalds some years ago.... it explains the availability of C cvijicii.
I have found the plants to be more vigrous than either parents and the flowers a little larger.

Mat

[fermi de Sousa]

Welcome to the Forum, Mat,
(or should we now refer to you as 'im outdoors?)
Have you got pics of your crocus?
cheers
fermi

[matoutdoors]

Hi fermi... many thanks.... Yes I do have a pic of it.... Ill post it when I get home and upload it.... Its very nice.. Almost like shot silk.. yellow ground with a translucent wash of lavender on it

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Mat, welcome! Good to have another Aussie join in   

[Paul T]

Welcome Mat.  Great to have you with us.  Are you the person by that name that I know from the Blue Mountains (although it has been a few years at least since we last "spoke")?

[Lesley Cox]

I guess you're Matt from Mt Tomah Bot Garden? I met you in 2003 in that case.

I didn't do the cross myself. Both species were (still are) in a hypertufa trough and I collected seed from C. cvijicii, expecting the seedlings to be the same. But they were obviously hybrids and there have been a couple of batches since. Neither species sets seed for me in isolation and I've not had anything on C. veluchensis in the trough either but I have just single clones of each. I'll go on with the seed as long as it's produced as they're all nice and an occasional one is superb, especially the apricot to bronze forms. In general they're quite large flowered but it's the colouring that interests me more. Some are almost white, just a little lemony/cream shading and there's a good yellow with strong lavender tips.

I'll be staying over the road from the gardens again in Sept for a few days.

[matoutdoors]

Hi there all...  Yes I am the Mat you guys are referring to. Thanks for the lovely welcome to the forum.... I have never seriously looked at it before. Although I read Ians bulb log frequently..

Attached find a pic of the Crocus cross I referred to earlier. Mine was a deliberate cross. I knew they were in the same section as each other and that severla other members of the section crossed. So thought Id give it a go. I think its quite nice.

I have also crossed several other members of the section with cvijicii... the seedlings are progressing well and Im curious to see whats going to be produced. particulary with my C cvijicii X C sieberi ssp sublimis Tricolor.
I crossed tricolor some years ago with siberi ssp sieberi. The progeny were very nice indeed. Like super large tricolors but with much deeper yellows and purples.

Cheers

Mat

[Paul T]

Mat,

Lovely!!  So have you ever got seed by selfing cvijicii?  Is yours grown from seed?  I have only the one clone, and it is self infertile, so I am hoping that someone out there gets pure seeds somewhere along the line.  Then again, if the hybrids look that nice they're worth a go to.  Must get veluchensis by the look of it so I can hybridise. 

[tonyg]

Hi Mat
Hope all is well with you.
Good to have another Crocus enthusiast onboard.  If the SH numbers keep on growing I may have to emigrate
Best wishes

[Paul T]

Tony,

We'd welcome you.  Your collection would be spending some time in quarantine though, unfortunately.    We'd still welcome you!! 

[Thomas Huber]

Welcome Mat!
Great to know there are more of "us" 
Love your article in the Crocus group bulletin!!

[Lesley Cox]

Exactly the same as some of mine Mat. I haven't tried to cross with any others but some seedlings from C. s. 'Bowles' White' have had a look of cvijicii about them, with soft yellow colouring. I get quite a bit of seed from C. s. sublimis tricolor and some of those are very large-flowered so maybe there's hybrid blood in there too.