Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Bulbs => Crocus => Topic started by: Janis Ruksans on December 02, 2016, 05:50:46 AM
-
Pity, but must to start this month with very sad news. Yesterday died my very long time friend Marcus Harvey from Tasmania, Australia. Just got mail from Otto Fauser that Marcus lost in his battle with cancer. He was very great nurseryman, may be the largest in Tasmania, introduced a lot of new bulbs through his nursery. Not so long ago Marcus sent me some pictures for my book and just from him I got several rare forms of crocuses lost in Europe but still grown in his nursery. During his seed collecting trips to Greece, Turkey - he always remembered about me and sent me good amounts of seeds and few corms from various Crocus species and later, next year I want to name one of such crocuses which turned new species after him (it will be published in Supplement of my book, which will be later sent to everyone purchaser of THE WORLD OF CROCUSES free of charge).
-
I have moved some messages about the very sad loss of Marcus Harvey to their own page .....
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=14926.0 (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=14926.0) is the new page
-
Crocus vitellinus
JJA 354.706 : Lebanon, M'tein. 875m. Ex. R. & R. Wallis 99-26.
The seed packet labelled as this seed code from JJA was mixed with a white flowered C. aleppicus (thanks for Janis's ID ;) ) and I separated their bulbs into different pots last summer.
-
It looks healthy and has great deep colors, this one has a light perfume.
-
Here weather is joking every few days - drops to minus ten, then back to +5. Last night we had minus 12, now only minus 1 but in greenhouse temperature didn't drop below minus 6 and are minor + degrees. So few pictures (not so bright as this autumn blooming vitellinus from Tatsuo - pity I lost mine autumn blooming form few years ago, it came from Jim Archibald, too).
Here more ordinary species
Dark form of Crocus laevigatus (came from Jim, too)
Crocus melantherus collected this spring under name of chrysanthus by road to Langadia
Crocus tournefortii from Karpathos - the first from Jim Archibald, the second my own gathering
and as last Crocus tournefortii from Rhodos, Kaka Vouni.
-
The only one in flower : Crocus biflorus ssp melantherus
-
While at home it is Crocus laevigatus fontanei
-
a Crocus offered by Janis: Crocus concinnus, a very nice one
-
Some pictures of Crocus concinnus from wild - locus classicus and near it. Pictures are from my coming book. Hope that 2nd of January I will bring it to for printing. My page-layout maker catched some bad virus and this week is passing in bed, but we have appointment for currrent meeting on Tuesday.
-
very nice Yann and Janis!
-
Better in the wild with wonderful colors!
-
my first 'spring'crocus, Crocus biflorus ssp alexandri which has turned out to be a white one.
-
Crocus hartmannianus a gift from a friend
-
Nice gift!
-
merry x mas and a happy new (growing) year to all my friends
Bernd
-
Crocus orphei
-
You don't stop producing these marvels, Tony. :o
-
You don't stop producing these marvels, Tony. :o
Glad you like it,just wish they would flower as a pot full rather than one at a time. It is far too warm here and naturally it has rained today.
-
On the other hand, Tony, as they flower individually one is able to concentrate fully on each detail of these exquisite little crocus rather than being dazzled by a group. That is a very lovely flower!
-
Crocus biflorus stridii a nice gift from Ian McE.
-
Very nice Tony!
Here still very calm with the spring crocusses!
-
Lovely crocus images 8) it seems the spring season is starting :D
On Dec. 17th. I mowed my meadow to chop the leaves and gras.
By chance I notified a last shot of a C. speciosus hybrid hidden under leaves from a hazelnut bush.
Never had such a late flower before.
-
I had two Crocus pulchellus still in flower on Christmas day.
-
two views of a hybrid crocus I have raised. Crocus x gotoburgensis (pelistericus x scardicus) x pelistericus. It seems the C.scardicus yellow has been completely lost and white introduced. There are several more to flower and so it will be interesting to see how they turn out.
-
That's an interesting development, Tony. Fascinated to see the others.
-
Excellent Tony :o
-
two views of a hybrid crocus I have raised. Crocus x gotoburgensis (pelistericus x scardicus) x pelistericus. It seems the C.scardicus yellow has been completely lost and white introduced. There are several more to flower and so it will be interesting to see how they turn out.
Janis says this is similar to an f2 hybrid from Gothenburg, named 'Henrik' - which he says is slow to increase - perhaps Tony's form will increase at speed !
-
Flowering now a very late stippled Crocus melantherus
-
Janis says this is similar to an f2 hybrid from Gothenburg, named 'Henrik' - which he says is slow to increase - perhaps Tony's form will increase at speed !
Mine is not an f2 hybrid as is 'Henrik' but an f1 crossed with straight pelistericus. The photograph in Janis'book is only vaguely similar as mine has a lot of white in it and not the dark tips to the petals.
I wait to see how quickly they increase. I find these species do so quite well.
My f2 hybrids are probably another year of flowering..
-
Yes, I realised the parentage of your bulb, Tony, I should have made it clearer that Janis was just saying it looked similar to 'Henrik' which is an f2.
-
Yes, I realised the parentage of your bulb, Tony, I should have made it clearer that Janis was just saying it looked similar to 'Henrik' which is an f2.
I have a selection of photographs of the f2 hybrids from Gothenburg and they are quite wonderful. It is interesting that apart from the 'Henrik' all the others I have seen have the yellow colouring from scardicus coming through strongly.
This is what I am trying to emulate with the ones I have coming on and will be pleased if they are even nearly as good.
-
two views of a hybrid crocus I have raised. Crocus x gotoburgensis (pelistericus x scardicus) x pelistericus. It seems the C.scardicus yellow has been completely lost and white introduced. There are several more to flower and so it will be interesting to see how they turn out.
Interesting hybrid Tony. Perhaps your f2 will be even better.
Flowering yesterday, a rare sunny day, was a very early? Crocus chrysanthus 'Warley' which Thomas described as having disappeared from trade and very rare nowadays.
-
Sorry, Cyril, it is not Warley. Will try to translate description (very shortened) of Warley from my first book on crocuses printed in Latvian in 1981:
Warley, Sin. Large Warley White - raised by Van Tubergen, got two awards in 1906 and in 1933.
Blooms around 22 days, makes 6-9 flowers per corm. The outer segments 28 x 14 mm, white (RHS CC 11D), at outer base greyish tongue turning into light lilac (87A>B) narrow diffused midvein. Inner segments more rounded, 25x15 mm, white on both sides, at outside base short greyish tongue on translucent yellow from throat. Tube dark lilac, throat light yellow (11 B), anthers darker yellow (15B) with black basal lobes. Stigma bright orange (24A) overtop anthers for 7 mm. Leaves 5-6, 3 mm wide, reach 27 cm length. In second half of blooming overtops flowers. Fertile. Increasing rate by corm splitting in average 2.8, maximum observed - 5.
Received from Van Tubergen and from Institute of Ornamental Horticulture in Pruhonice (Czechoslovakia).
I have only old style slide which must be scanned, but to find it now would be too difficult. As you can see - it is quite different from plant on your pictures. It was time when Dutch companies were doing both - growing and selling, and then most of stocks came true named and healthy. Now all changed... Not only naming, but quality became simply horrible...
-
Thanks Janis. I can see my plant does not quite fit in with description of Warley. Any idea what it might be?
-
Thanks Janis. I can see my plant does not quite fit in with description of Warley. Any idea what it might be?
Sorry, I'm not growing Dutch cultivars for around 20 years and not remember them so well more to identify, simply about Warley I remembered how it look, when I worked on cultivars for my very first book on crocuses, May be you can use article of Jacobsen N., Van Scheepen J., Orgaard M. 1997. The Crocus chrysanthus-biflorus cultivars. The New Plantsman. 4: 6-38. There are included good key, although still remain question about few cultivars where possibly wrong clone are included - the distinction between cv. 'E.A. Bowles' and 'E.P. Bowles' - seem to be not correct (at least judging by my observations from late seventies-early eighties of last century, when true cultivars still was foundable.
-
A self pollinated seedling from Crocus sieberi subsp. atticus ‘Stunner’. It flowers earlier than its parent.
-
Here it is still autumn regarding the Crocus. Few pictures after 6 weeks of ugly weather with many fog. Crocus melantherus has just opened the first flower.
The flower of this Crocus laevigatus from Evia is rather big, the biggest one I have.
-
Still in flower are these two Crocus.
-
Crocus biflorus pulchricolor white form
Crocus fleischeri
Crocus hybrid raised from seed collected from a natural hybrid of C. biflorus sso pulchricolor and C. chrysanthus.