Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Crocus => Topic started by: Ophrys on January 01, 2020, 09:23:46 AM
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Happy New Year,
The new year starts good with seedling of Crocus dispathaceus and flowering Crocus alatavicus!
Best wishes
Ophrys
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I've at last lost my Cr. alatavicus which held on bravely for many years in a raised bed but otherwise unprotected. Before we moved to our present garden it always flowered in July/August (New Zealand) but the flowers were usually frosted appearing as they did in the coldest part of winter. We have less frost here but, it seems so much more rain and the combination hasn't been to their liking. I'll have to try and find seed somewhere because I did like its grey shading very much.
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Here's hoping all our crocus give us pleasure in 2020!
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More and more crocuses comes out. Yesterday noted that buds of flowers of pink Crocus alatavicus are out to half size. I pictured well developed Crocus athous and still quite fresh Crocus hartmannianus - both in buds as there are no sun. Weather is cool and very wet. Long term weather forecast predicts all January warmer than normally and with very few days when night temperatures could be slightly below zero but days all will be with + degrees. Doors in my polytunnel are fully open and temperature inside is the same as outside. Minimum during last 3 weeks was minus 4.5 C. Started blooming Juno irises sand as always the first is Iris rosenbackiana from Vahsh, Tadjikistan. Coloured buds has spring sternbergias - Sternbergia fischeriana must to open in few days, S. candida is halfway but already coloured.
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Last weather forecast this morning informed that this already is the warmest winter during history of temperature recording. To change - will be needed horrible frosts of Central Siberia during all February, but long term prognosis shows that during all January only few nights will be with minor minus degrees and similar most likely will be February, too. By this winter temperatures we were compared with Ireland and Northern France.
Yesterday I again brought in two pots with crocuses. This case those were Iranian samples from 2018 years expedition.
In this entry is flowers of gathering 18IRS-055, collected some 20 km from Saqqez and after careful checking of flower features was confirmed preliminary identification by corm tunics as Crocus iranicus, Only colour of bract and bracteole were silvery without (?) greenish shade at tips, but this could be caused by very dark weather. Of course later will be checked leaves, too, for final confirmation of identification. Type gathering was collected in 2008 just near border of Saqqez city, where now is city rabbish depository and population from there was completely destroyed.
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More distantly from Saqqez, in place which got from our group the nickname "Anemone field" were collected few corms of another crocus (18IRS-054) preliminary labeled as Crocus iranicus aff. Now, checking flowers, I found few differences from typical C. iranicus. I don't think that they are very important - not easy to check presence of minor hairs or papilla in throat, because I have now eye problems and next month will have surgical treatment on my right eye - my most important working eye. Final decision again will be done after checking of leaf morphology. Of course we must accept that no one species is stable as milestone - they are changing and variable. Prof. Arne Strid once wrote me - "it is as with humans, regardless, are your eyes blue or brown, hairs straight or curled - we all are Homo sapiens" (although the second word quite often can be put under very great question mark.
Here a pair of pictures of Crocus iranicus 18IRS-054, picture of our group on the field, then Anemone field (already shown earlier), after which was nicknamed locality and as last - bridge over river in valley near locality.
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I decided that every day I will bring in for pictures, herbarium and flower detail observation two different gatherings, one pot of each. It takes time for flowers to open but especially to prepair and observe flower details.
In this entry another crocus which I provisionally labelled as Crocus iranicus. It was collected another year and at another locality along same road. Still the flowers seems very close to type iranicus. Remain only to check other features.
Really many of Iranian "biflorus" (more correctly would be use epithet "adamii" as they, according Harpke, are forming own Series) by flower looks very similar and identification seem to be quite difficult. Now comparing some of mine Iranian with those 3 species published by Kerndorff & Pasche, it was quite difficult to separate mine C. inghamii from C. zanjanensis of HKEP - differences are very minor and could depend from accuracy, population variation or interpretation by observer. C. zanjanensis is reported from locality apr. 70 km to South from C. inghami locality, unfortunately sometimes data given by HKEP about type localities are far too approximate or even incorrect (see C. bifloriformis, mawii and some others). If they will turn identical - then priority belongs to epithet C. inghamii. Although both are published in same year, C. inghami was published by International Rock Gardener in May, whilst C. zanjanensis in Stapfia at end of year.
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Very nice report Janis, this species (form?) is looking cute.
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I continue with Iranian crocuses. This one (18IRS-037) almost certainly is the new one, still unpublished. There are several features seen already in flower separating it from C. iranicus. Still need comparing with HKEP's C. sanandajensis, although collected just in opposite direction from Sanandaj and quite distantly. I still need blooming of two acquisitions growing wild in both directions from 18IRS-037 shown here.
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Yesterday I was too busy with other occupations for bringing inside some crocus pots. Regardless of some sun, in greenhouse flowers remained tightly closed, but a pair of pictures looked quite impressive, so here buds of Crocus mysius - note the difference of colour. Another is very beautiful Crocus fauseri - named after Australian Crocus enthusiast Otto Fauser (hope, Otto, that you didn't suffer from horrible fire disaster). And using possibility of showing 5 pictures per entry - here Colchicum antepense - at moment most floriferous plant in my greenhouse, Gymnospermium albertii - which just starts blooming and one of reticulata irises from Iran, collected in 2008 as Iris reticulata WHIR-134, but certainly needs proper name. Thre WHIR can be decifered as Jill White's Iranian Group.
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Today is extremely dark but I brought inside two pots with crocuses and checked time for opening from tightly closed buds to such flowers. Pictures were made just 17 minutes after putting of pots on our kitchen's window-sill.
On pictures - Crocus artvinensis and C. chrysanthus from Mt. Parnassos in Greek Macedonia (originally gathered by Jim Archibald).
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Today I brought in 3 pots with crocuses. In this entry one of the best forms of Crocus ancyrensis sensu lato. DNA showed that under this name are hidden 5 different species. This one has deep purple flower tube.
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Today again 3 pots were brought inside. I pictured them just after bringing in, when flowers were in tight bud, then 15 minutes later and last picture is 20-25 minutes after bringing in. Unfortunately I did this on;ly in afternoon, 20 minutes past two, so it was quite dark and tomorrow I will try to picture them again in the first half of day.
In this entry Crocus antherotes which I got from Dirk and was reported by him as identified by H. Kerndorff.
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Another trio of pictures by the same schedule - just after bringing in, 15 minutes later ad last 20-25 minutes after bringing in. In this case it is Crocus mediotauricus HKEP-0112
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The third taxa brought inside today was very special species from C. chrysanthus sensu lato group from Bozdag Range, W Turkey. Here on the first picture - just after bringing inside with tightly closed buds and then 3 pictures starting from 15 minutes after bringing in and the last is the same crocus pictured in the wild in 2013.
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Today I brought inside for pictures 2 cultivars of Crocus korolkowii selected by me from wild material collected during my 2nd Central Asian trip in valley of river Agalik, Serawschan mountain ridge. In this entry LUCKY NUMBER - again tightly closed buds, (but this case for showing outside markings) and flowers pictured 15-25 minutes after bringing in. In Agalik was the greatest variability of Crocus korolkowii seen by me and I collected there many corms which in nature very well multiplied by corm splitting. There were maid some selections and selected stocks got numbers. This one was stock number 12. I gave handful of corms (free of charge) to Dutch bulb grower Jan Pennings, who raised its stock and offered it for trade, but changed name given by me (Number Twelve) to LUCKY NUMBER, and later sold thousands of it.
The winter of 2005/06 was in first part similar to current winter and all crocuses then grown outside were in full bloom already in January, In February came black-frost - one week minus 35, another minus 20 C, and of course most of early runners were killed. Alive very few and from Crocus korolkowii the best survivor was just this one - really LUCKY NUMBER.
Note its very dark, almost blackish brown throat colour and intensively stipled outside of outer segments.
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The 2nd was cultivar of Crocus korolkowii MOUNTAINS GLORY. Flower outside with minimal stippling only along midrib and throat very deep yellow. The weather today was extremely dull and dark, so colours are darker and warmer than normally are. Usually Crocus korolkowii is more cold yellow, not so worm as on those pictures.
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After Janis' fireworks, here some of my (more common) firstlings ;D
Crocus fleischeri grown from seed.
Crocus imperati (my guess as I obtained it years ago as C. corsicus which it isn't)
Crocus korolkowii (ex Tadjikistan)
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Today +7 C. Sun. Flowers start opening even in greenhouse, but in this entry my greatest surprise. In 2018 we travelled with small group through Iran and at one of stops around 100 km from Kermashah we had lunch stop at altitude around 2000 m. Dima being youngest of us and most powerful ran to gentle hilltop in proximity between ploughed fields and brought to me single crocus corm found by him there. After that we more than half an hour criss-crossed this hill, searching for some more crocuses but found nothing. Really it was wonder, how this one escaped grazing. And now it showed flower bud and... it was yellow!
There are only 2 yellow crocuses known in Iran at present - Crocus almehensis far to East at west end of Kopet-Dag and quite recently published C. kurdistanicus compared with danfordiae. Checking locus classicus for C. kurdistanicus, seem that this one was collected not very far, if I correctly identified locus classicus. So most likely it is C. kurdistanicus. (of course, I identified Qorveh from Google Earth with Ghorveh in Iran Journal of Botany) and there are some other geographical discrepancies. Distance between locus classicus and 18IRS-020 is around 100 km. Pity, only one plant at present.
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Beautiful plants Janis
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Crocus korolkowii maid large buds even in outside garden. In greenhouse in full bloom are Crocus ancyrensis. But Iris histrio is very beautiful even before opening of flowers. This sample is from S Turkey, not far from border with Syria. In greenhouse blooms Narcissus bulbocodium - common for Brits, but unusual here in Latvia.
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In this entry two my selections from Crocus korolkowii open pollinated seedlings. I don't think that those could be hybrids with alatavicus or michelsonii. White seedlings occasionally appear between C. korolkowii even if it is not grown side by side with both relatives.
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Those two seedlings of C. korolkowii were selected and named by Lithuanian bulb grower Eugenius Dambrauskas. He suppose that those are hybrids with alatavicus and michelsonii. But I'm not so sure about this, but I keep here his opinion. Names below pictures. All they were pictured inside - on our kitchen's windowsill.
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Yesterdays few hours of sun almost opened some crocus flowers without bringing them inside. One of such was Crocus atticus collected just near city border of Athens. Another pictured in greenhouse was selection from Crocus gembosii 19-04 with intensively brown striped flower segments outside. But on our kitchens windowsil I forced opening of some crocuses, too. Here pictures of very beautiful species published by me - Crocus sakaltutanensis. It is so special for its very slender flowers with comparatively narrow flower segments, that was noted as different from first blooming in my collection (it was collected wild long after blooming).
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Another selection from Crocus gembosii with striped flowers - 19-03
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this last one is special, all features to attract the eyes :o
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The third taxa brought inside today was very special species from C. chrysanthus sensu lato group from Bozdag Range, W Turkey. Here on the first picture - just after bringing inside with tightly closed buds and then 3 pictures starting from 15 minutes after bringing in and the last is the same crocus pictured in the wild in 2013.
I missed this form, truly unbelievable colors!!
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Yesterday I brought in the most unusual crocus in the world - the famous pink Crocus alatavicus and after 15 minutes it showed the proper colour and beauty.
The another has special story. Some time ago Potterton & Martin company selected from wild material collected not far from Akseki in Turkey very special crocus from C. chrysanthus group with black stigma and gave to it name 'Sunspot'. Unfortunately during growing it got some fungal and virus infection. I bought it three times, hoping to receive good quality stock, but finally destroyed all stocks, although sometimes I was a little doubtful about virus infection, but viruses can hide under good growing conditions. But I found similar one at the same locality and I crossed both, hoping to get something similar but healthy. When I pictured this one selection (label was lost) in greenhouse, with tight closed buds, I supposed that it is some of ancyrensis forms. Yesterday I brought it inside and when flowers opened, I was so pleasantly surprised for its black stigma and perfect form. I even was a little doubtful - may be it is some 'Sunspot' which escaped fireplace, but comparing with old pictures of original Sunspot, I found that flower tube in Sunspot is greyish green striped, but in this seedling it is deep purple. Now remain to hope that it will be good increaser, too.
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The first two pictures shows crocus species from near Tunceli, Munzur Daģlari in Turkey. From there are published two species - Crocus munzurense by Kerndorff and Pasche and Crocus youngiorum by me. Both still are not blooming, but flowers came out in another acquisition which didn't look as munzurense or youngiorum. It was collected already in 1990 by KPPZ trip from Gothenburg BG (KPPZ-217) and still is grown there and in my collection.
The last 3 pictures represents beautiful Crocus nubigena from Lesbos Island, Greece.
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Crocus yataganensis - last pictures from yesterday. Today new ones pictured but I was too busy watering my greenhouse. Accidentally one pot slipped out of my hands and I found that it is may be too dry. In spring crocus soil usually is very wet, so surplus water will give no damage
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Two crocuses of today - the first Crocus nevadensis from Morocco and then 4 pictures of Crocus stevensii named by me after Norman Stevens from Cambridge Bulbs - great traveller who together with Jim Archibald introduced many new plants from wild into cultivation.
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Now 2 pictures of most likely new species from Iran (still must to check), then 2 pictures with open flower of Crocus kurdistanicus. The last is very similar to C. danfordiae and at present I can separate deep yellow form of danfordiae from kurdistanicus only by shape of flower segments - in danfordiae they has narrower bottom part (looks as haft), but in kurdistanicus they are ovate without haft-like base. I'm attaching here some Turkish danfordiae picture from earlier years where clearly can be observed shape of flower segments.
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Now two "blacks" (of course only in tight closed bud. The first three pictures are selection from Crocus korolkowii seedlings - 19-02
and another duo - Crocus gembosii selection 20-02 - even darker in bud.
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Yesterday we had here a little sun, followed by heavy rain today. Regardless of sun and closed doors and windows only very few crocuses slightly opened flowers. In this entry Crocus hartmannianus from Cyprus, the stock used for description of Crocus hittiticus (as subsp. of reticulatus) by Brian Mathew, another, better looking stock originally collected by Jim Archibald and another relative of Crocus reticulatus - Crocus micranthus, unfortunately not opened yesterday. And as last in this entry Crocus vitellinus from Syria, originally collected there in 2002.
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Truly exceptionnal Crocus' Janis.... here's some from my (small !!!!!!) collection :
Crocus atticus 'Bowle's white'
Crocus henrikii
Crocus sieberi from Omalos (Cr)
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Lovely plants Luc
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Here we had some hours of sun mixed with dark clouds and some snow. but only few crocus flowers opened. The most widely opened Crocus of really unknown origin from sieberi/atticus/sublimis/nivalis group - Bowles' White. Its throat is glabrous, so it most likely could belong to atticus; for sieberi it is too hardy; I don't think that nivalis or athous was grown by E.A. Bowles, who raised this variety, but sublimis has hairy throat. Temperature in greenhouse last night dropped to minus 1.5 C, but again warmer air is coming. Unfortunately it mostly is dark and wet. So flowers come out, stay closed and finally drops wilted. No real seed crop I can expect this season. Some crocuses from this entry already were shown, but those all are pictures from last two days. Names are under pictures.
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Today I again brought inside some pots with crocuses to force their opening. One of the best places where greatest variability was found was Gembos Yaila not far from Akseki in Turkey. Pity, but the places where crocuses bloomed so abundantly during my last visit there were marked and divided for building of villas. Fantastic locality most likely now is lost. Every year I'm marking clones from those early gatherings and their seedlings. Many are hybrids between Crocus gembosii from chrysanthus group published by me and Crocus which I identified as concinnus, although I'm not 100% sure about correct identification. Clone shown here was labeled under number 20-03.
Last 3 pictures are from another species published by me from chrysanthus like Turkish species (this year 3 more so named chrysanthus pots from Turkey has "red flags" fort I would not forget to describe them - two already are blooming, the third only very tips of shoots showed at present). It is Crocus muglaensis from Mugla province with distinct black anthers. I observed no one with yellow anthers in its area.
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Between those which I brought inside for picture was white selection from Crocus cyprius. The first picture is made few years ago when I noted its blooming between usually blue flowers (stock was raised from seeds collected wild by Jim Archibald), it was marked and now grown separately. On following 3 pictures you can see how it develops during half an hour on our kitchens windowsill. And the last picture is Crocus fauseri pictured in greenhouse, where flowers not opened regardless of some sun. Today some more crocuses I will bring inside for pictures. It takes a lot of time, pity. And afraid that seed crop will be minimal.
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Yesterday we had full day of sun, but still weather was cold and temperature even in greenhouse with closed doors and windows didn't exceed 6-7 C. Several crocuses opened their flowers and most of day I passed inside checking stocks and picturing flowers.
Bloomed one of the most beautiful crocuses - Crocus caricus from SW Turkey, but two interesting yellow crocuses from so named "chrysanthus" group not opened flowers and in evening I brought pots inside to picture them today. For long time Crocus corsicus from Sardinia are staying in closed buds and didn't opened flowers even in yesterday's sun.
Unfortunately today again is cloudy and dark and weather forecast not predict sunny days during next two weeks.
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thanks for sharing photos of these stunning crocuses.
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Some more crocuses from last Saturday, yesterday, today and all coming week - only clouds, fog, rain...
At first 2 pictures of C. antherotes - my own gathering and plant got from Dirk
Then Crocus brickellii - described by me, something similar to danfordiae, but stigma well overpass tips of anthers. The longest flower in background never opened and will not more open...
Next is Crocus demirizianus
and as last Crocus hartmannianus got from Oron.
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Again I'm forced to bring in pots to get some open flower pictures. The red label in pot means that from this stock herbarium is needed.
In this entry two acquisitions of Crocus chrysanthus sensu lato from Turkey and Crocus henrikii. The last most likely is hybrid, it was marked and separated from main stock last spring.
And as last is Crocus crewei TULA-011 - my own gathering.
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Sunny hours opened flowers of Crocus hittiticus which started blooming in the first days of December. Here classical sample from Brian Mathew's collection, used for description of this species, and as next - sample which I got from Jim Archibald with wider flower segments and larger flowers. By the way, yesterday noted that it started blooming (still in tight buds) also in outside garden.
Once more beautiful hybrid/mutation of Crocus korolkowii from Lithuania 'Lemon Alatau' raised by Eugenius Dambrauskas.
Then very special crocus, at present labeled as mysius aff, but could be simavensis, too. Both has very long filaments and short anthers. Not easy to separate, especially because both my samples were collected far from locus classicus locality as it was published by HKEP, but information given by them could be incorrect, too (in association with other false data published by them).
And last is yellow form of Crocus minutus, but it can be another new species, too. Its white stigma splits already deep in throat and stigmatic branches are very long, whilst in typical minutus according HKEP flowers are bluish and stigmatic branches shorter.
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The last crocus pictures from last weekend.
The first is new species from W of Iran, now started blooming and I will start working on it. Pictured plant was brought in for herbarium.
Next is lilac form of Crocus stevensii, published by me.
Crocus suaveolens still stay in tight buds, I think already for 2 weeks.
Surprisingly, but flowers opened one of new species from C. veluchensis group - normally it is late blooming species.
And as last is Crocus youngiorum, published by me, but originally collected by Henrik Zetterlund in Munzur Daglari, Turkish Kurdistan. Still in tight buds.
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Luc and Janis,
thanks for the breathtaking crocus pictures. 8) Just a shame that they are not for my garden conditions.
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Two very similar by flower crocuses with annulate tunics from Iran, but different by other features. 17IRS-053 was found at same place where Iris marivanica, NE from Marivan, but 18IRS-059 near Lake Urmiyeh. Many crocuses from Iranian Kurdistan by flowers looks quite similar. Crocus uschakensis has deep purple colouring inside throat. Such has some crocuses from Europe, too, but European plants is sweetly and pleasantly scented, but C. uschakensis has very unpleasant smell.
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When I saw buds of this korolkowii seedling (18-01), I supposed that label is wrong, because it was labeled as "white" - but when flowers opened...
The next two pictures are from unidentified species from unknown locality. I got it from Gothenburg labeled as isauricus, what it certainly isn't. Is it concinnus? May be, as together with it were some similarly coloured but smaller in size blue danfordiae. Both species occasionally met in nature.
And the last is C. gembosii selection 19-04 - striped brown with black connective.
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Today I brought inside on;ly two crocuses but both are quite special and so for each I want to show 5 pictures. Of course the first is Crocus youngiorum, published together by me and Henrik Zetterlund. Originally it was collected by Henrik already in 12990, but only very recently, when I started checking of still unnamed or supposedly wrongly named stocks, I found that it is very special crocus and so we decided to name it after our great friends, moderators of this forum, editors of International Rock Gardening and Bulb Log - Maggi and Ian Young - as Crocus youngiorum.
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Another crocus checked today was Crocus sanandajensis, published not so long ago by HKEP, but collected for me by my friend in Iran. During that day we split and I went another road by taxi to search for some special crocus seen on internet, but didn't found it. My friend was more successful and found this one and collected for me some 10 corms. In the same year HKEP published 3 new crocuses from Iran, and comparing locality given by them (E of Sanandaj, altitude 2100 m) with locality, where my friend collected it, turned that it could be characterised by same words - E of Sanandaj, altitude 2010 m. Problem is that there are 2 features which is different - the firs is about bract and bracteole which according HKEP are inconspicuous, but in my plants - very prominent. But that could be explained by conditions in cultivation. Other feature is more serious - filaments according HKEP must be nude, but in my plants they are distinctly hairy and invariably, although hairs are very short but quite densely spaced. Different crocuses? But there are no other places which could respond to characteristics of locality. Careless description? It only shows how false is attitude with hiding of type localities or even giving of false data. It makes crosschecking of descriptions and identifying of other samples extremely difficult. But in any case I still keep the name Crocus sanandajensis to the plant shown here.
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Ian and I were immensely honoured to have Crocus youngiorum named for us - so when I saw Janis' photo on reply 45 of the pretty buds, I was very much hoping that we would soon see the open flowers - and so we have, in reply 49!
Thank you Janis - it is lovely for us to see these special crocus and very touching too.
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Ian and I were immensely honoured to have Crocus youngiorum named for us - so when I saw Janis' photo on reply 45 of the pretty buds, I was very much hoping that we would soon see the open flowers - and so we have, in reply 49!
Thank you Janis - it is lovely for us to see these special crocus and very touching too.
Small correection - reply 48.
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Still forced to bring in crocus pots for pictures. Next week forecasted 2 nights with temperature down to minus 7, hope it will not damage plants. The first two pictures are of Crocus inghamii, found by John ingham and described and published by me, then new crocus species from Iran.
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Both are very beautiful, Janis! Due to unfavourable conditions in my garden, it´s not sensible to collect crocus, but the chance-seedlings provide some fun, too.
(https://up.picr.de/37779432ax.jpg)
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Some Crocus currently in flower that caught my eye:
Crocus cyprius
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49461356146_6f6768632f_o_d.jpg)
Crocus caricus
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49460876393_2ec7ce0620_o_d.jpg)
Crocus fleischeri
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49460876543_abcd650c13_o_d.jpg)
Crocus crewei
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49461588727_2b780216c1_o_d.jpg)
Crocus abantensis
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49465810692_e3a3c551d5_o_d.jpg)
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I missed a lot of crocuses in january, i hope to catch up in february.
Crocus korolkowii 'Amulet'
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Crocus seisumsiana and Crocus corsicus (from Kurt Vickery seeds)
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Today for the first time in this season greenhouse in sun warmed up sufficiently to open crocus flowers and it was possible to make some pictures. At first view of one crocus bed - never before so early were blooming so many crocuses.
At first - Crocus candidus 13TUS-039
Then special selection from Crocus gembosii 17-02 - the first which was multiplied sufficiently to be included in next year's catalogue, I only must to find appropriate name. Very nice are its anthers with black colour in them.
Crocus randjeloviciorum was quite recently described from Serbia, but it is growing in Bulgaria, too
and as last in this entry - Crocus sarichinarensis R2CV-036, found and published by me.
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At first - 2 different forms of Crocus micranthus, then Crocus vitellinus from Syria, collected shortly before started rebel against governing regime, one of the best forms with black connectives of anthers. The last two pictures are Crocus orphei, collected at locus classicus, but blackish connective is not listed in its description, although between my gathering there were 2 individuals with such colour in anthers, and not only this year.
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Started frosty week. Latvian weather forecasts predict this one week as coldest this winter and similarly looks weather forecast from my favourable meteoblue.com. Only Russian gismeteo.ru predicts horrible frosts from mid February up to minus 17 entering in March. Will keep fingers crossed... Today will be full sun, so many new pictures will come and I hurry to publish from yesterday.
The first is typical biflorus from Craco, Italy.
Then Crocus brickellii 12TU-020 - relative to danfordiae but note the very long stigmatic branches overtopping anthers.
Turkish Crocus chrysanthus LST-068B I already show to you, but now flowers opened without bringing in
Crocus corsicus from Crenargo, Sardinia was in closed buds for 2 weeks, and now opened for the first time
and as last - Crocus hartmannianus 10-1997 from Gothenburg Botanical garden
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Beautiful... all of them. And that style of C. Hartmannianus stands out like a lantern.
This one here is from Janis, too. Crocus sakaltutanensis. So lovely, but what a name. I always want to spell it differently ::)
It is a lovely dark blue on the outer segments and lighter blue on the inner ones. curiously, though, the new flower is much lighter (it was warmer the last days and I guess that did it).
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In this entry few very special crocuses. I start with seedling from Eugenius Dambrauskas named by him as Snow Tiger. Augis suppose that it is occasional hybrid between korolkowii and michelsonii grown up from open pollinated seeds of C. korolkowii.
Next is my collection of Crocus crewei 'Hot Chocolate'. The name was given by Ibrahim Sozen to the plant collected at the same locality and looking identical with mine later gathering, so I decided to keep the same name, although they are not clone originating from single plant.
And the last two pictures are from my most lovely crocus, and why it is so - explains the name - Crocus ruksansii - named by Dima Zubov. It is tiny crocus from Karpathos Island in Greece. I four times visited this island trying to find this crocus, but only once saw few plants long after blooming. Half of plants, collected by me, I sent to Erich Pasche, but later it was named by Dima, who found it on the same Island, following my advice - how to reach mountain top where it is growing wild. Earlier it was regarded as C. nubigena, but is very different from it and from other species from same series.
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Beautiful... all of them. And that style of C. Hartmannianus stands out like a lantern.
This one here is from Janis, too. Crocus sakaltutanensis. So lovely, but what a name. I always want to spell it differently ::)
It is a lovely dark blue on the outer segments and lighter blue on the inner ones. curiously, though, the new flower is much lighter (it was warmer the last days and I guess that did it).
It was named after Sakaltutan gecidi (mountain pass) where it was found. Crocus colour depends from temperature, but such difference surprise me, too.
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Crocus ruksanii was first described in International Rock Gardener (IRG) 90 of June 2017 -
http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2017Jun211498039508IRG_90_June.pdf (http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/logdir/2017Jun211498039508IRG_90_June.pdf)
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Some more from yesterday. At first few which looks very similar to Crocus iranicus but checking still not finished. Then two pictures of Crocus uschakensis, easy separable from other so named "chrysanthus"because it is without pleasant scent, easier to name its scent as pungent.
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Again some crocuses pictured last Tuesday. At first Iranian Crocus almehensis, then 2 hybrids - the first from wild, second grown up from seeds received from AGS as C. artvinensis. Then semi double (not permanent) C. concinnus and as last Crocus crewei.
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It is once again time for the fantastic turquoise Crocus baytopiorum. Not as compact as last year, but I had to shut it up under an glass wool blanket for the last few days due to the recent cold wave in Bavaria. Beautiful nonetheless, and also slowly bulking up..
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Yes, the blue species are fascinating!
Just a chance-seedling.
(https://up.picr.de/37829242hb.jpg)
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another corsican species : Crocus minimus
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The Crocus flower in my greenhouse was quick this year and is nearly over. Crocus abantensis and Crocus heuffelianus Taavi are two of the last ones. Outdoor there are some Crocus species left and in the greenhouse the next will be the Fritillaria. I guess Fritillaria japonica will be the first.
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yes crocuses don't last long in the greenhouse, it's too warm for an early spring.
Crocus seisumsiana from Janis, second wave of flowers
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Two pots of crocuses grown from seed of Crocus sieberi 'Hubert Edelsten'. The 07 one is close to the seed parent but the 09 one is more like sieberi ssp. sublimis 'Tricolor' which could be the pollen parent.
07 on the left and 09 on the right.
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09
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before the storm destroy crocuses...
Crocus chrysanthus 'Eyecatcher'
Crocus tommasinianus 'Lilac Beauty'
Crocus seisumsiana
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I was not entering new pictures at first for trip to Spain together with daffodil lovers and after returning I had surgical treatment on my eye so my working capacity at computer and with reading etc. for some time was and still will be limited.
Here I'm entering picture of Iranian crocus about which is known only that it came from Iran and was sent out by Giesen BG - I named it as C. iranicus, but I'm not sure is the name correct. Several Iranian crocuses are visually quite similar.
Next is Crocus kerndorfiorum, few years it looked very poorly,, but this spring seem that recovered.
And last 3 pictures shows crocus about which I had hard discussion with Kerndorff - it is Crocus mawii. The first two pictures are from crocus received as mawii from Kerndorff's partner in research Erich Pasche. Although both are from same acquisition, you can easy see the great difference in position of stigma, regarded by Kerndorff as quite important feature in separating of species. The third is the same crocus which I used for front cover picture of my book and about which I got very "sharp" mail from Kerndorff - that it isn't true and only commercial fraud from my side. It was collected very closely to supposed type locality of C. mawii and I really can't identify it under other name. Unfortunately the data about type locality of C. mawii is so incorrectly published, that for identification I used exclusively morphological features. Only position of stigma in this plant is below anther tips, but such are 27% of wild population (according Kerndorff) and same looks one of E. Pasche's plants. Stigmatic branches according original description "often held tightly together" but not so on Pasche's plants. So I remain to my opinion that I correctly identified this as albino of C. mawii.
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Some more crocuses from last week.
At first is Crocus olivieri from W Turkey. This year it is very bright, really orange, but not so impressive as balansae from Samos Island.
From Iranian crocuses in this entry C. sanandajensis published by HKEP and collected for my in Iran by my friend at supposed locus classicus.
Follow selected form of Crocus sieberi from Crete named by me as 'White Giant'- due very huge size of flowers - just as Dutch so named C. vernus, although this season flowers are smaller than usually.
and as last unusually coloured new crocus species from C. veluchensis group. At its locality almost all plants has more or less expressed yellow shade, sometimes only just-just visible, in the throat. There are some other features confirming its status as new different species.
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and as last unusually coloured new crocus species from C. veluchensis group. At its locality almost all plants has more or less expressed yellow shade, sometimes only just-just visible, in the throat. There are some other features confirming its status as new different species.
I have similar ones if not the same. I have collected them as seed and asked myself whether this is Crocus veluchensis since they flowered for the first time.
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Some crocuses from last week and last days when some sun shined. Today again endless rain...
Crocus gembosii Erich - was named after Erich Pasche 9 years ago, when he visited my nursery together with friends from more than 10 countries, when I celebrated 64.5 years (I'm born in September, and to invite worlds top bulb specialists I decided to celebrate "half" year).
Crocus candidus Orangino was found and named by Ibrsahim Sozen. Pity, its seedlings split in all shades of yellowish and white.
Two of Crocus gembosii seedlings - could be hybrids of some generation with C. concinnus. On Greembos Yaila both grow together, hybridizes and seedlings are fertile, too.
The last is spring form of Crocus laevigatus.
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Oh those changes of names... This, former C. albiflorus, now must be named as true C. vernus... On pictures different acquisitions - localities under pictures. On 5th picture - Crocus neapolitanus.
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Now blooms late spring crocuses, but some only yesterday started to show noses out of soil. Weather still not favourable for them even inside greenhouse.
At first Crocus exiguus from Slovenia was included under C. heuffelianus in my monograph. Last researches shows that there are several genetically different groups under name of C. heuffelianus joined.
Several years ago I got some blue crocus grown up from C. malyi seeds in Gothenburg BG. It was unknown which species was pollen donor. I selfed this hybrid and now got first flowers of F-2 generation. This F-2 seedling shows that most likely pollen parent was some from C. heuffelianus group.
In spring 2015 I together with my wife and Dima Zubov revisited Eastern Carpathian mountains i n W Ukraine for pictures of Crocus heuffelianus for my book, but few were collected, too. Next 2 pictures show you darkest purple and lightest individual - both in wild were growing side by side.
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Some crocuses from last week.
Crocus candidus Orangino - nice form which was found wild by Ibrahim Sozen from Turkey, seedlings are splitting from pure white to various shades of pale yellow and creamy.
Crocus reticulatus Alba from Pjatigorsk, Russia - very bright albino found by my Russian friend
Crocus suaveolens TCH-0813 from Italy, received from Thomas Huber
Crocus cvijicii from Greece, could be renamed as C. grammosii, but new name still isn't published.
Crocus named by Dutch breeder as FANTASY, but as I long before named one of my autumn blooming crocus hybrids as 'Fantasy', I renamed it as Crocus x Spring Fantasy. It is similar to my old cultivar 'Yalta' which is widely grown in Holland, too.
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Crocus x gotoburgensis
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49641540472_afd5a801cd_c_d.jpg)
Crocus heuffelianus Carpathian Wonder
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49565451801_d8c462c906_c_d.jpg)
Crocus cvijicii
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49565451511_4854439d4b_z_d.jpg)
Crocus vernus var. leucorinchus -obtained from a friend under this name.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49565680267_cd4be67da9_c_d.jpg)
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Stunning photos, Steve. I especially like C. gotoburgensis.
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Today is my 77th birthday and to give myself a treat I decided to look through all the pages of New Crocus Year 2020. I have just a tiny handful of these wondrous plants therein displayed so it was undoubtedly a treat. But I am left totally bemused and confused by the names and the relationships between many of them which are new to me and without access to the corms themselves, it's impossible to get them sorted and properly placed within my mind, all made worse of course by the inability to import to the Southern Hemisphere. So in a cowardly fashion I shall enjoy the photographs and ignore large tracts of text, leaving that to the experts here and in IRG, who have a clue what it all means. :)
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Strange, strange season. Tonight we had minus 7 C - I still didn't visit greenhouse, don't know how looks my bulbs there. Yesterday snowing changed to sunshine all the day and blooming of crocuses continued. Again 3 hours I passed taking off old flowers. But crocus blooming is extremely strange - some only now comes out, some very early blooms together with very late. Some pictures from yesterday I start with Crocus chrysanthus from Mt. Falakro in Greece. C. chrysanthus is one of the earliest bloomers. Yesterday started one of the latest - Crocus veluchensis aff. from Serbia with the largest and brightest flowers between crocuses of this group. Finally almost opened flowers one of the best seedlings from my cross between C. grammosii (Greek cvijicii) and Serbian C. veluchensis aff. with beautifully shaded deep creamy yellow flowers. Still blooms some of Crocus harveyi, usually early blooming species from Ikaria Island in Greece, but this is the last flower. Another late bloomer is C. scepusinensis with white stigma. Such are quite rarely foundable between usual flowers with orange stigma.
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Some years ago I crossed Crocus cvijicii from Greece (may be will be renamed as C. grammosii) with some of so named C. veluchensis - stock from Serbia with deepest blue largest flowers. Although population is quite variable, includes purest white and slightly bluish shaded individuals. Here both parents (behind purple veluchensis its white form) and two selected seedlings from this cross. There are some brownish, too, but I don't regard them as very spectacular.
Still blooms spring form of usually late autumn blooming Crocus laevigatus from Naxos Island, Greece.
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Once more repeat - very strsange year. Never before in same time bloomed the very latest crocuses as C. minimus and still some of annulate species as Crocus pulchricolor and C. adamii from Taschir, Armenia. On last two pictuires variation of Crocus vernus (former albiflorus) from Switzerland.
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Very strange is Crocus jablanicensis. It must to have white stigma, but this year some are with yellow and in one pot even orange stigma. I suppose that reason is in pH of substrate. In wild it is growing on acid soil and corm planted in rhododendron mix + coarse sand really still has white stigma, same gathering planted in standard mix with pH 6.5-7 has orange stigma. All corms are originally collect and are not seedlings.
Beautifully blooms Crocus veluchensis sensu lato from Serbia - with very large flowers of strong texture and blooms as one of latest. Another with white stigma, but only occasionally, is Crocus scepusinensis. Those I name as var. leucostigma. Still continue blooming of Crocus cvijicii Cream of Creams - this comes from Archibald.
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All the wind and rain this year hasn't been good for my crocuses, but I've finally got some half-way decent photographs of a batch bought as 'Fuscotinctus' - they look true to type to my untrained eye, even though the picture on the packet looked more like 'Herald' or 'Elegance'. My 'Gypsy Girl' flowered rather earlier and got torn to shreads, so I haven't had an opportunity to compare the two.
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First flowering of Crocus cvijicii from seed sown in 2014. I think 3 germinated but only one survived to flower. A bit paler than I expected.
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In the garden Crocus 'Ruby Giant' and Shock Wave'
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A seedling from Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty' - nice shape
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Some autumn flowering Crocus flowering now in Adelaide, South Australia.
1. C. goulimyi
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2. C. xantholaimos x pulchellus
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3. C. speciosus f. albus
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4. C. goulimyi 'Mani White'
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5. C. longiflorus
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Crocus vernus (the former C. albiflorus) found today on hummocky meadows near Mittenwald (Zugspitz area). Mostly white, but some were very colourful. I often wonder about these forms, because the colouration is not always regular. Is it possible that these are the result of a viral infection?
Anyway, they are very beautiful..
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New crocus species - Crocus assymetricus was recently published in Phytotaxa : https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.438.2.1
It is very unusual, making roots only on one side of corm, so corm is not symetrical, since its name. Attached pictures are from oiriginal publication in Phytotaxa and Facebook by Mehmet Çelik.
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The most strange season. Several crocuses already opened seed pods and I collected their seeds and they are already sawn although outside all still are white in thin cover of snow. The first species ripening seeds was Crocus pumilus from Crete - seeds are tiny as tiny are flowers. The other species where seeds are already harvested are hakkariensis, cappadocicus, hatayensis, caspius, some kotschyanus samples.
I already harvested few "chrysanthus" samples where leaves became yellow - corms looks very good, slightly increased in size, but I would like more. But some species suffered in this crazy winter. The worst are hittiticus - earlier growing as weed, michelsonii and may be some others, not yet checked - all made new corms healthy but smaller than planted. All of them lost roots.I suppose that winter with unfrozen soil maid conditions too wet. Frost makes soil physiologically "dry" as well as draught. All of them were treated by fungicide for safety using tea sieves.
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Is it possible that these are the result of a viral infection?
Plants looks healthy, I don't think that it is virus infection. I have similar from Jura mountains and they are perfect - no other symptoms, so I think it is normal irregularity in striping.
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The most strange season. Several crocuses already opened seed pods and I collected their seeds and they are already sawn although outside all still are white in thin cover of snow. The first species ripening seeds was Crocus pumilus from Crete - seeds are tiny as tiny are flowers. The other species where seeds are already harvested are hakkariensis, cappadocicus, hatayensis, caspius, some kotschyanus samples.
I already harvested few "chrysanthus" samples where leaves became yellow - corms looks very good, slightly increased in size, but I would like more. But some species suffered in this crazy winter. The worst are hittiticus - earlier growing as weed, michelsonii and may be some others, not yet checked - all made new corms healthy but smaller than planted. All of them lost roots.I suppose that winter with unfrozen soil maid conditions too wet. Frost makes soil physiologically "dry" as well as draught. All of them were treated by fungicide for safety using tea sieves.
Indeed the season is very strange i also collected most of the bulbous seeds, even tulips in the garden have their first pods dry and opened ???
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Some more Autumn blooming crocus from the Southern Hemisphere right now. How do the flat earthers explain this!?
Crocus goulimyi "Mani White"
C. goulimyi var. leucantha (I think)
C. ligusticus (syn. medius)
C. ligusticus
C. hadriaticus
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Some more Autumn blooming crocus from the Southern Hemisphere right now. How do the flat earthers explain this!?
Excellent! Nice to see autumn bloomers now.
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In 2018 during our trip to Iran my friend Dimitri Zubov found 1 crocus corm with annulate tunics on some slope. Regardless of very long searching in vicinity no one other crocus was found and Dima presented this corm to me. This spring it bloomed for the first time and turned quite recently published C. kurdistanicus (as subsp. of danfordiae) by Iranian botanists. In original paper lacked a lot of important details so the first flower I used for dissecting and description of details. Later I checked its leaves, too. Turned that it is well separable from danfordiae by several features. It raised two more flowers which I self-pollinated without great hope to get any seed as many crocuses are completely self-sterile (I never got any seed from C. almehensis - another yellow crocus from Iran - because all my plants represent single clone). For my great surprise with C. kurdistanicus this worked and very good seed pod is formed.
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The crocus season is just starting in Newfoundland. Here is Crocus chrysanthus 'Dorothy'
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Crocus chrysanthus 'Fusco-tinctus'
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Those are leaves of Crocus balansae Orange Monarch bought last autumn in Holland. All plants turned heavy virus infected as you can see on this photo. Pity, but most of crocuses coming from Dutch nurseries in last years are virus infected, only huge amounts of fertilizers hides infection symptoms on Dutch fields. Such plants must be destroyed as soon as possible. Of course, sometimes I'm finding infected plants in my collection, too. This year I destroyed pot with very nice stock of C. scepusinensis, grown with me for around 40 years, and another pot with Crocus heuffelianus and few others received during last 2-3 years.
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A few more crocus opening in Newfoundland
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Various pink(ish) forms of Crocus tommasinianus that spontaneously arose in my garden.
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A few spontaneous Crocus vernus hybrids popping up in my lawn
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Very good to see your plants emerging from the snow, Todd!
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Some special Crocus spp. that have bloomed during lockdown in Auckland. First two are Crocus aleppicus from upper Galilee (Oron Peri), flowering now; then C. biflorus melantherus from Marcus Harvey flowering 24th April; the last two photos are C. kotschyanus from Lebanon (Oron Peri) flowering second week of April.
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Nice to see some crocuses in bloom, i also grow kotschyanus from Oron's seeds and i find the central pattern interesting which isn't a feature of other kotschyanus i bought.
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Nice crocus, Anthony, nice to see you posting again.
I think this is Crocus pulchellus albus; it was a stray cormlet potted up a couple of years ago and flowered yesterday for te first time,
cheers
fermi
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Very similar to one that is flowering now in an unlabelled pot.
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Some autumn flowering Crocus flowering now in Adelaide, South Australia.
1. C. goulimyi
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Sorry Jamus, somewhat late I know, but my goulimyi are flowering now so I was looking back - the one on the left in your image is very pretty with its two sets of five petals. Is that a stable feature?