Crocus April 2007

[Otto Fauser]

Crocus autranii is quite rare but I have had it for about 10 years. It has nevered increased and never set seed though it flowers regularly. This flower has been a bit chewed by something.



This is a very nice deep coloured form of C. banaticus. There are very many in my garden, gradually spreading both bt seed and vegetatively.

[Thomas Huber]

Hello Otto and welcome to the forum!
Wonderful photos, please show us more of your collection!

Here the last Crocus versicolor flowering in the
Alpes Maritimes in 1450 m last week:

[Thomas Huber]

Not far away I found thousands of Bulbocodium/Colchicum vernum in flower:

[Paul T]

Welcome Otto!!  Great pics! (you too Thomas)  Keep em coming everyone.

[Guff]

After about a week of cold and snow, finally a nice warm sunny day. Still many crocus just starting to pop up out of the ground. 

The crocus in the second picture is really blue in color, and I think it's Skyline.  I really need a new camera. I only see one of this "Skyline" I took pollen from it and put it on all the Prince Klaus flowers that were opened. Third picture, crocus is Tricolor, not sure what the yellow one is. I had one Firefly flower open, so I put pollen from it onto all the open Tricolors. I didn't take a picture, but I have some tomassinianus roseus opened also, and I took some pollen and stuck it on some giants. I then took some pollen from a couple different giants and put it back on Roseus. Does Roseus produce seed?

[Guff]

Is Pickwick and King of Striped the same crocus? If these are different and you have pictures of each, could you post them so I can see the difference. Thanks.

[David Nicholson]

I've boobed again Put my pots of Crocus behind the greenhouse to die back and forgot about them. Suddenly remembered them today and went to have a look. Plenty of "straw" on top and not a scrap of green leaf to be seen, pots as dry as- (here's a good old Yorkshire expression)- a tram drivers glove!! Don't ask me to explain it. Gave 'em a good water just in case. Are they likely to be worth saving taking into account they were nothing special?

[Maggi Young]

If they were very yellow in the leaf, David, then you wasted your time watering them now! I'd let 'em dry out again and keep them dry till repotting later in the year. Excess moisture at this point is likely to do more harm than good. I suspect the BD  is about to mention this very scenario in a coming log... watch out for that.

[David Nicholson]

I suspect the BD  is about to mention this very scenario in a coming log... watch out for that.

There I go again-always at the cutting edge!!

[Maggi Young]

There I go again-always at the cutting edge!!

Yes, David, but are you safe with sharp objects?

Guff:  Pickwick and King of Striped are different crocus varieties, to my mind, the first has all over stripes whereas the King of Striped has stronger stripes on only three of the petals... but try searching Google for pix of these plants and you will soon discover that there is as much confusion wihth these two varieties as ther are with many  others in commerce! You will see that for both types ther is a wide range of pictures given though not, funnily enough, an overlap between the two!

[Joakim B]

David
I made the same mistake and thought they were doomed but underneath I found nice bulbs so I will save in the pot and see what comes next year. I do not take them up and repot them since they will have a dry summer here in Portugal anyway and I am to lazy to repot them and to be honest I do not understand why one should repot unless they are congested. 
Joakim

[David Nicholson]

Joakim, it's good to know I am not alone in making mistakes!

[Guff]

Maggie, yes I did Google, but that is were the problem was. They both looked the same to me, therefore I thought there were misnamed pictures, or that they are the same crocus. I had hoped someone had both and could post pictures, so I could see the difference.

[Thomas Huber]

Hi Guff!

Sorry, but I've overlooked your question about Pickwick/King of the Striped! I have some "King of the Striped" corms, but they are virused and not worth seeing. Below a photo of "Pickwick" and a link to Vanengelen's homepage with a photo of "King of the Striped".

Yes, my tommi "Roseus" does set seed !! Good luck with your pollination games 

http://www.vanengelen.com/catview.cgi?_fn=Item&_recordnum=3118&_category=Crocus

[Guff]

Thomas, thanks. I can see the difference now. I will have to check my giant crocus bank tomorrow. I planted 200 giants this past fall on the bank. I like the species much more, so many more flowers per corm. I have been putting Roseus pollen on most of the giants that are open. I also noticed Prince Klaus doesn't have any pollen, does it sets seed?

I have a tommy that is teal/aqua blue. I only see 3 of these in the bed. I will try to get a picture of it tomorrow, doubt my camera will capture it though. Any guess by going by the color?