Crocus January 2014

[Cyril L]

Thank you all for the welcome and encouragement to post, not sure about ‘heavy posting’ though.

Are those big showy reticulate irises at the Leslie roundabout still in flower?

Steve, the ‘Giant Irises’ at Leslie Roundabout are still here (perpetual flowering).  It acts as a landmark at a major gateway into the town.  Town artist Malcolm Robertson produced the "Giant Irises" sculpture as Glenrothes' contribution to the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988, after which it was re-erected at Leslie Roundabout.

This attached picture (maybe this should be in the Iris thread!) was taken a few months ago, after the irises had a fresh coat of paint.  There was scaffolding there for some time.  I thought they were pollinating the flowers!!

[Lesley Cox]

This is a wonderful sculpture. MAy we borrow it please for our NZIS Convention to be held in Dunedin in 2015?

[Cyril L]

Irises in flower don't take well to transplanting 'in the green'!

[Steve Garvie]

C'mon Maestro -give us your secret compost recipe for these Iris! 

[Lesley Cox]

Irises in flower don't take well to transplanting 'in the green'!

 

[edtijtgat]

Crocus alatavicus that has more flowers to come...

[Steve Garvie]

Crocus baytopiorum


Crocus baytopiorum


Crocus baytopiorum


One of my favourite crocus, this beautiful species is a pale ice-blue in sunlight but on an overcast gloomy Scottish winter's day only the blue component of daylight seems to punch through the dark clouds. Paradoxically this transforms the plant into something magical!

[Martin Baxendale]

Beautiful, Steve. Lovely photos.

[Maggi Young]

That they are -  but I am shocked at them being in flower so early - have you got them under some heat, Steve?

[Steve Garvie]

No heat Maggie but they are in a greenhouse on a sloping site that gets the full mid-winter sun and is prone to warming up. It's not that early for baytopiorum is it?

[Maggi Young]

I think it is earlier than we would expect them to be out here, Steve - but since we lost them in the nasty freeze the other winter, I'm not able to give an up to date report. 

[Tony Willis]

two Crcous biflorus in flower now the first is

Crocus biflorus ssp pulchricolor a white form from Turkey Ulu dag

the second was identified as the normal blue form of the same species when I collected it in 1997 near Feithye some 500 miles away but has probably been named as a new species by now

[Lesley Cox]

My baytopiorum (from AW's seed, that generous lady) flowers in New Zealand in mid July which is mid January for you in the north. Mine is in a trough, outdoors of course. July is our coldest month and usually is quite sunny but frosty. Lovely to see crocuses here at this totally crocus-free time of year, mid summer - but the wettest for many years so crocuses and other bulbs are already sending out roots. 32mm of rain yesterday and last night.

[Cyril L]

Crocus alatavicus that has more flowers to come...

A close relative of Crocus michelsonii and another lovely early flowering crocus.

Steve, you have captured the blue in Crocus baytopiorum in the best possible light. Wonderful.  The only snag is in this dull weather it tends to get floppy, although some forms are better than others. Here no sign of it flowering yet but the buds are showing.

the second was identified as the normal blue form of the same species when I collected it in 1997 near Feithye some 500 miles away but has probably been named as a new species by now

Is this now Crocus atrospermus (with an orange throat)?  Janis will know.

Crocus michelsonii 'God's Look' now fully open.
Also C. michelsonii 'Odyssey'.  Large flower but colour not exceptional.

[Steve Garvie]

Cyril, C. michelsonii "God's look" is certainly a particularly attractive form to my eye, though there probably isn't a bad form of this classy crocus!